Graduate status and age at entry to medical school as predictors of doctors' choice of long-term career

Objective To determine whether graduate entry to medical school, taking an intercalated degree during medical school, and age at entry to medical scho ol are related to choice of eventual career. Design Postal questionnaires. Setting United Kingdom (UK). Subjects All doctors who qualified in the UK in 1993 or 1996. Results We analysed whether graduate status and age on entry to medical sch ool, and taking an intercalated degree during medical school, were predicto rs of the choice of eventual career, adjusting for differences by sex, year of qualification and medical school. General practice was the career choic e of 27.0% (79/293) of graduate entrants and 21.6% (1095/5073) of non-gradu ate entrants, a difference of borderline significance (P = 0.04). Of the no n-graduate entrants, general practice was the career choice of 15.3% (319/2 081) of doctors who took an intercalated degree and 25.9% (776/2992) of doc tors who did not (P < 0.001). Within the hospital specialties, those who to ok an intercalated degree were more likely than others to choose the hospit al medical specialties or pathology. Age alone was not a predictor fur choi ce of any area of practice. Conclusions There was no evidence of an association between age at entry to medical school and choice of eventual career. Graduates at entry to medica l school were a little more likely than non-graduates to choose general pra ctice but the relationship was not a strong one. In these respects, changin g the entry profile of medical students is unlikely to result in major shif ts of career choice towards general practice.