Association of demographic characteristics with evolution of interest in anesthesiology during medical school

Max Y Lu, Alexandra M Hajduk, Jeph Herrin, Mytien Nguyen, Dowin Boatright and Sarwat I Chaudhry

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Physician workforce diversity improves access to care, outcomes, and workforce productivity. Yet, women and sexual minorities remain underrepresented in anesthesiology, while representation for low-income trainees remains poorly characterized. How interest in anesthesiology evolves among these groups during medical school remains unclear. Methods: This retrospective cohort study of U.S. MD-granting medical school matriculants from 2014–2017 used Association of American Medical Colleges data on self-reported sociodemographic characteristics and anesthesiology interest. Students were grouped by interest evolution from matriculation to graduation: never interested (no-no), cultivated (no-yes), lost (yes-no), sustained (yes-yes). Chi-square tests characterized sociodemographic differences across interest paths. Firth logistic regression models assessed odds of cultivated vs never interested and sustained vs lost paths across sociodemographic groups. Results: Among 39,910 students in the cohort, 295 (0.7%) sustained, 2,007 (5.0%) cultivated, 494 (1.2%) lost interest, and 37,114 (93.0%) were never interested in anesthesiology. Women were less likely than men to have initial interest (1.5% vs 2.5%, p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0358122

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0358122

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