Table 1.
Descriptive characteristics of the survey participants by their interest in global health, The Nationwide Survey of Medical Students’ Global Health Exposure, 2021, Korea (n = 2450)
| Variables | Medical students’ interest in global health | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes (n = 781) | No (n = 1669) | p-valuea | |
| Global health course participation | |||
| No | 574 (30.3) | 1318 (69.7) | < 0.01* |
| Yes | 207 (37.1) | 351 (62.9) | |
| Student background factors | |||
| Gender | |||
| Male | 368 (27.8) | 955 (72.2) | < 0.01* |
| Female | 413 (36.6) | 714 (63.4) | |
| English proficiency | |||
| Advanced | 29 (23.4) | 95 (76.6) | < 0.01* |
| Intermediate | 405 (29.4) | 970 (70.6) | |
| Basic | 347 (36.5) | 604 (63.5) | |
| Overseas experience | |||
| None | 520 (29.8) | 1222 (70.2) | < 0.01* |
| Less than 6 months | 123 (37.5) | 205 (62.5) | |
| More than 6 months | 138 (36.3) | 242 (63.7) | |
| Academic year | |||
| MD 1st year | 290 (35.9) | 517 (64.1) | < 0.01* |
| MD 2nd year | 221 (32.3) | 464 (67.7) | |
| MD 3rd year | 149 (29.0) | 365 (71.0) | |
| MD 4th year | 121 (27.3) | 323 (72.7) | |
| Medical program | |||
| Standard entry | 640 (31.0) | 1427 (69.0) | 0.02* |
| Graduate entry | 141 (36.8) | 242 (63.2) | |
| Career aspiration in global health | |||
| No | 374 (20.7) | 1430 (79.3) | < 0.01* |
| Yes | 407 (63.0) | 239 (37.0) | |
| Institutional factors | |||
| Location of medical schools | |||
| Seoul Capital Area | 225 (30.3) | 517 (69.7) | 0.84 |
| Chungcheong area | 141 (33.3) | 282 (66.7) | |
| Honam-Jeju area | 149 (33.4) | 297 (66.6) | |
| Daegu-Gyeongbuk-Gangwon area | 173 (33.3) | 347 (66.7) | |
| Busan-Gyeongnam area | 93 (29.1) | 226 (70.9) | |
| Types of medical school | |||
| Public | 231 (32.0) | 490 (68.0) | 0.91 |
| Private | 550 (31.8) | 1179 (68.2) | |
| School curricula on global health | |||
| Yes | 124 (36.1) | 219 (63.9) | < 0.01* |
| No | 252 (36.7) | 434 (63.3) | |
| Don’t know | 405 (28.5) | 1016 (71.5) | |
*p < 0.05
a For comparison of interest in global health between the “yes” and “no” groups, t-tests and chi-square tests were conducted accordingly.