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- There is increasing recognition of the importance of medical student wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics that are associated with lower wellness in medical students.
An anonymous, IRB-approved survey was distributed to medical students across the United States. Students were asked to rate their response to different statements regarding wellness on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 indicating “Strongly Disagree” and 10 indicating “Strongly Agree”. For statistical analyses, Wilcoxon rank-sum test or Kruskal-Wallis test were applied. A statistical significance level of 0.05 was used for analysis.
From November 2022 to February 2024, 370 medical students across the United States responded to this survey (response rate of 0.03%). Most respondents were women (n=259, 70%), White (n=164, 44%), first- and second-year medical students (n=107, 29%, n=98, 24%, respectively), and interested in internal medicine, a surgical subspecialty, or pediatrics (n=62, 17%, n=58, 16%, n=42, 11%, respectively). There are statistically significant different experiences of burnout based on the year of training in medical school (p<0.001) with third-year students have increased feelings of burnout, followed by their peers in a specified research year. Medical students living in the Midwest identified most strongly with being a workaholic compared to their peers living in other regions of the country (p=0.01). A medical student’s specialty of interest influenced their confidence in matching in their chosen specialty (p=0.003). There are no statistically significant differences in wellness between men and women or among different races.
There are statistically significant differences in medical student wellness based on year of training and specialty interest. Our study suggests that additional resources and support may be helpful for students in their clinical or research years, or those interested in certain specialties.
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