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Lifestyle as a Factor in Medical Students' Career Choices
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To the Editor: Dr Dorsey and colleagues1 concluded that "controllable lifestyle" explains the majority of the variance in specialty choices of graduating US medical students since1996. However, the data indicate that controllable lifestyle was primarily found in well-paid specialties, and therefore uncontrolled factors such as increasing medical student debt loads may have explained much of this effect. The largest proportional increases in medical student applicants were seen in anesthesia (481.8%) and dermatology (1050.0%). Historic trends unrelated to controllable lifestyle may account for a significant portion of these changes. Medical student interest in anesthesiology decreased significantly shortly before the baseline year, 1996. A 1995 front-page Wall Street Journal article chronicled the shortage of anesthesiology jobs, which may have influenced medical students to avoid the specialty.2 The significant upward trend in interest in anesthesiology after 1996 may simply reflect recovery from this nadir.3 The authors noted that only 33 students nationwide were . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Bruce Y. Lee, MD;
Todd Hecht, MD
Department of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD
Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion
Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Philadelphia
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