Table 1.
Sociodemographic characteristics and “negative comments” in references for students attending medical school who were later found guilty of serious professional misconduct (cases) or not (controls) after qualifying. Figures are numbers (percentages)
| Socioeconomic characteristic | Control | Case | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex: | |||
| Male | 155 (65.7) | 54 (91.5) | 209 (70.8) |
| Female | 81 (34.3) | 5 (8.5) | 86 (29.2) |
| Domicile: | |||
| Home (UK) | 228 (96.6) | 57 (96.6) | 285 (96.6) |
| Overseas | 7 (3.0) | 1 (1.7) | 8 (2.7) |
| Not known | 1 (0.4) | 1 (1.7) | 2 (0.7) |
| Age group (years) at course entry*: | |||
| Younger (<21) | 228 (96.6) | 53 (89.8) | 281 (95.3) |
| Older (≥21) | 8 (3.4) | 6 (10.2) | 14 (4.7) |
| Estimated social class (paternal occupation): | |||
| I | 44 (18.6) | 7 (11.9) | 51 (17.3) |
| II | 79 (33.5) | 20 (33.9) | 99 (33.6) |
| III (manual or non-manual) | 61 (25.9) | 10 (16.9) | 71 (24.1) |
| IV | 9 (3.8) | 5 (8.5) | 14 (4.7) |
| V | 5 (2.1) | 6 (10.2) | 11 (3.7) |
| Not known | 38 (16.1) | 11 (18.6) | 49 (16.6) |
| Negative comments present in student’s reference: | |||
| None | 97 (41.1) | 21 (35.6) | 118 (40.0) |
| Minor | 58 (24.6) | 14 (23.7) | 72 (24.4) |
| Moderate | 29 (12.3) | 7 (11.9) | 36 (12.2) |
| Major | 7 (3.0) | 2 (3.4) | 9 (3.1) |
| Not known | 45 (19.1) | 15 (25.4) | 60 (20.3) |
*25 older files from one university had no data on age at admission. By examining date of final school qualification and date of course entrance, we deduced that 23 of these students were probably aged 17-18 and two were probably ≥21. These were marked accordingly as <21 or ≥21.