Relationship between primary care practices in medical school admission and the matriculation of underrepresented-minority and female applicants

Purpose. To determine whether primary care-oriented (generalist) admission practices at U.S. medical schools address physician workforce diversity issues by resulting in the admission of more members of underrepresented-minority populations or more women. Method. The authors performed cross-sectional, secondary analyses of databases from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The independent variables were four generalist admission practices: generalist admission committee chair, greater representation of generalists on admission committee, offering preferential admission to likely generalists, and having a premedical recruitment activity targeting likely generalists. The control variable was public/private school ownership. The dependent variables were the mean ages of the matriculating classes and the proportions of students at each school who were African American, (total) underrepresented minorities, women, and married. Results. Ninety-five percent of medical schools completed the AAMC's Survey of Generalist Physician Initiatives in either 1993 and 1994; 94% of matriculants replied to the AAMC's 1994 Matriculating Student Questionnaire. In multivariable analyses, no admission practice was associated with percentages of African Americans, total underrepresented minorities, or women. Conclusions. Schools with primary care-oriented admission practices did not admit greater percentages of underrepresented-minority students or women. Additional efforts may be required to attract and admit minority and female applicants.