Social background of minority ethnic applicants to medicine and dentistry.
OBJECTIVE
To explore ethnic variations in social background of successful applicants to undergraduate United Kingdom medical and dental schools.


METHODS
Retrospective analyses of University and College Admissions Services data on all students to commence study in pre-clinical medicine and dentistry, during the academic years 1994/5, 1995/6 and 1996/7. Analyses were undertaken for two categories of social class, namely higher (professional and intermediate) and lower (skilled non-manual, skilled manual, partly skilled, and unskilled) social class.


RESULTS
Over 15 thousand students were accepted to study medicine and dentistry during the three-year study period, of which 80% were from high social class backgrounds. More medical (80.9%) students were from high social class backgrounds than dental (73.3%) students (OR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.39, 1.70). Social class differences were observed, with a greater proportion of higher social class students amongst the white students than amongst the minority ethnic students (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.30, 1.55). This was more marked in dentistry (OR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.22, 1.79) than in medicine (OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.22, 1.49). More students from higher social class backgrounds were observed in medicine than in dentistry amongst the black (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 0.59, 4.00), Indian (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.58, 2.62) and white (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.26, 1.64) groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Significant inter-ethnic differences are observed in the social background of students entering medicine and dentistry. Dentistry accepted a greater proportion of students from lower social class backgrounds and from black and minority ethnic groups.
Bedi
R
R
WHO Collaborating Centre for Disability, Culture and Oral Health, Eastman Dental Institute, London, United Kingdom.
Gilthorpe
M S
MS
D001741:Black or African American; D001208:Asia / Q000208:ethnology; D044383:Black People; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012923:Social Class; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006113:United Kingdom; D044465:White People