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. 2023 Jun 6;23(1):412.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04412-z.

Predictors of self-reported research productivity amongst medical students in the United Kingdom: a national cross-sectional survey

Temidayo Osunronbi #  1   2 , William Adeboye #  1 , David Faluyi  1 , Jasmine Sofela  3 , Efua Abankwa  1 , Semhar Abraha  1 , Fatima Adamu-Biu  1 , Zain Ahmad  1 , Izieduwa Akhionbare  1 , Chimba Chimba  1 , Anna Chiara Corriero  1 , Isata J Fofanah  1 , Ikenna Ibeanusi  1 , Ummulkhulsum Ibrahim  1 , Deborah Inyang  1 , Robert Jones  1 , Adebola Kolawole  1 , Rachael Madume  1 , Chenai Mandangu  1 , Valentine Mberu  1 , Ellen Nelson-Rowe  1 , Marguerite O'Riordan  1 , Serena Shoker  1 , Agbolahan Sofela  4   5   6 ; REMED-U. K. collaborators
Collaborators, Affiliations

Predictors of self-reported research productivity amongst medical students in the United Kingdom: a national cross-sectional survey

Temidayo Osunronbi et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The number of academic clinicians in the UK is declining and there are demographic inequalities in the clinical-academic workforce. Increased research productivity by medical students is believed to reduce future attrition in the clinical-academic workforce. Thus, this study investigated the association between student demographics and research productivity amongst UK medical students.

Methods: This is a national multicentre cross-sectional study of UK medical students in the 2020/21 academic year. We appointed one student representative per medical school, and they disseminated a 42-item online questionnaire over nine weeks, through departmental emails and social media advertisements. The outcome measures were: (i) publications (yes/no) (ii) number of publications (iii) number of first-authored publications (iv) abstract presentation (yes/no). We utilised multiple logistic and zero-inflated Poisson regression analyses to test for associations between the outcome measures and predictor variables at a 5% significance level.

Results: There are 41 medical schools in the UK. We received 1573 responses from 36 UK medical schools. We failed to recruit student representatives from three newly formed medical schools, whilst two medical schools prohibited us from sending the survey to their students. Women had lower odds of having a publication (OR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.33-0.85) and on average had fewer first-author publications than men (IRR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.37-0.89). Compared to white students, mixed-ethnicity students had greater odds of having a publication (OR: 3.06, 95% CI: 1.67-5.59), an abstract presentation (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.37-3.26), and on average had a greater number of publications (IRR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.02-3.43). On average, students who attended independent UK secondary schools had a higher rate of first-author publications compared to those that attended state secondary schools (IRR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.23-3.15).

Conclusion: Our data suggest that there are gender, ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in research productivity among UK medical students. To tackle this, and potentially improve diversity in clinical academia, we recommend that medical schools should facilitate targeted high quality research mentorship, funding and training, especially for under-represented-in-medicine students.

Keywords: Inequalities; Medical students; Productivity; Research; United Kingdom.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Type of publications authored by the respondents
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval for being an author on at least one PubMed-indexed article. References: aman; bwhite; cstate school. *: statistically significant
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Adjusted incidence rate ratio with 95% confidence interval for the number of PubMed-indexed publications. References: aman; bwhite; cstate school. *: statistically significant
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Adjusted incidence rate ratio with 95% confidence interval for the number of first-author PubMed-indexed publications. References: aman; bwhite; cstate school. *: statistically significant
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval for having at least one national/ international presentation. References: aman; bwhite; cstate school. *: statistically significant
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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