Table 2.
Characteristics of 72 Studies Included in a Systematic Review on Primary Care Specialty Choice
| Characteristic | N (% of 72) |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| United States | 41 (57) |
| Europe | 11 (15) |
| Australia and New Zealand | 11 (15) |
| Canada | 4 (6) |
| Asia | 5 (7) |
| Single-/multi-institution | |
| Single medical school | 61 (85) |
| More than one medical school | 11 (15) |
| Type of intervention | |
| Compulsory clerkships | 28 (39) |
| Longitudinal programs or special curricula | 26 (36) |
| Electives | 10 (14) |
| Interest groups | 3 (4) |
| Student-run free clinic | 3 (4) |
| Other* | 2 (3) |
| Objective of intervention | |
| Promotion of primary care | 35 (48) |
| Promotion of rural practice | 18 (25) |
| Promotion of primary care in a rural context | 7 (10) |
| Promotion of care for underserved populations | 4 (6) |
| Aim of intervention not specified | 8 (11) |
| Timing of the evaluation† | |
| Follow-up only | 29 (40) |
| Pre and post | 12 (16) |
| Pre, post and follow-up | 10 (14) |
| Long-term repeated follow-up | 7 (10) |
| Post and follow-up | 5 (7) |
| Post | 4 (6) |
| During | 3 (4) |
| Pre and follow-up | 2 (3) |
| Comparison | |
| Studies using a control group | 30 (42) |
| Random allocation of students to intervention | 4 (6) |
| Data collection method | |
| Survey, unvalidated (or validation not specified) | 39 (54) |
| National Residency Matching Database | 19 (26) |
| Other databases | 10 (14) |
| Survey, validated (including state-wide questionnaires) | 8 (11) |
| Physicians’ Associations’ databases | 7 (10) |
| Focus groups | 5 (7) |
| Semi-structured interviews | 4 (6) |
| Essays | 1 (1) |
| Studies using more than one data collection method | 15 (21) |
| Methods of quantitative data analysis | N (% of 65) |
| Inferential statistics, unadjusted | 31 (48) |
| Descriptive statistics only | 21 (32) |
| Inferential statistics, adjusted for more than 3 independent variables | 7 (11) |
| Inferential statistics, adjusted for 1 to 3 independent variables | 6 (9 ) |
*Includes an integrated residency program and an intercalated research degree.
†Indicates when data were collected: follow-up (at a point beyond the immediate completion of the intervention); pre (before or at the beginning of the intervention); post (immediately following the end of the intervention); long-term repeated follow-up (longitudinal database follow-up of students and/or graduates over several years); during (during the course of the intervention)