Factors influencing medical students’ choice of specialization: A gender based systematic review

Abstract

Background Students’ choice of medical specialties has evolved throughout year, with a growing interest in quality of life and in technological specialties. We investigated the repartition of such choices in the world and its influencing factors with a focus on the gender's influence, for helping policy-makers to deal with medical shortage and territorial to specialty disconnect. Methods A systematic search was conducted on MEDLINE and Scopus from January 2010 to January 2020. Data extraction and analysis followed JBI and PRISMA recommendations. The selected articles had to focus on medical students, detail their choice of specialty, and look for factors influencing their choice. Articles were excluded if they only assessed the attractiveness of a specialty, or evaluated a public policy. This review was registered on PROSPERO, CRD 42020169227. Findings 751 studies were screened, and fifty-four were included. Surgery and internal medicine were the most wanted specialties, both in occidental and non-occidental countries. The main factors influencing the choice of specialty were lifestyle, work-life balance and discipline interest, with variation across different countries. Gender clearly affected this choice with 63.7% of men willing radiology and 14.7% of men in obstetrics and gynecology. Interpretation Influential factors vary with specialty and are affected by the country of residence. Gender has a great impact in students’ willingness to work in specific specialties. Policymakers should adapt their appealing strategies according to the country and the medical discipline concerned. Funding The authors have no support or funding to report.

In response to “Factors influencing medical students’ choice of specialization: A gender based systematic review”

“…This systematic review demonstrated that occidental women were more attracted to pediatrics than men (13.6% vs. 4.8%) [1] . Although stereotypically, females are portrayed as more nurturing and empathetic, this could be a misconception due to cultural expectations about gender roles [2] .…”

“…Analyzing gender's role in the career decision-making process of medical students would allow policy makers to develop strategies that ensure gender balance among specialties. Levaillant et al [1] . systematic review determined that males were mainly interested in surgery and internal medicine in both occidental (OC) and non-occidental (NOC) countries.…”

Raising Up Gender Equity Voices: Report from an International Virtual Assembly in Global Surgery

“…Although women make up an estimated 70% of the global healthcare workforce, they are underrepresented in multiple distinct elds [11,12]. The gender variable has been associated with adverse implications while choosing the surgical eld, training for residency programs, and daily working in medical practice [13][14][15]. When appraising the intersections with minorities based on race, sexuality, and socioeconomic class, the gap expands [14,16,17].…”

“…The gender variable has been associated with adverse implications while choosing the surgical eld, training for residency programs, and daily working in medical practice [13][14][15]. When appraising the intersections with minorities based on race, sexuality, and socioeconomic class, the gap expands [14,16,17]. In this sense, GEIGS general assembly had capacity-building as a core value for its members and external participants.…”

In response to Mayte Bryce-Alberti's letter about “Factors influencing medical students’ choice of specialization: A gender based systematic review”

“…We thank Mayte Bryce-Alberti for her interest in our systematic review. In our paper [1] , we deliberately used the term “gender” and not “sex”, being more interested in cultural than biological differences. Moreover, most of the included studies collected data through survey, reflecting more the declared gender than the genetical sex.…”