Empiric validation of the rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarship 'rural background' criterion.
OBJECTIVE
Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarships (RAMUS) provide 10,000 dollars per annum to selected medical students with a rural background. Eligibility criteria include having lived in a rural community for five consecutive or eight cumulative years. We sought to validate the above-specified criterion using data from the Australian National Rural Background Study.


METHODS
National case control study stratified by jurisdiction.


METHODS
Two thousand four hundred and fourteen Australian-trained rural and urban general practitioners (GPs).


METHODS
Whether the RAMUS rural background criterion was met or not.


RESULTS
Doctors who met the RAMUS rural background criterion were more likely to be in rural practice (odds ratio = 2.50; 95% confidence interval, 1.97-3.18) than those who did not. This was true for all jurisdictions (except for the Northern Territory) and ranged from 1.95 for South Australia to 3.57 for Victoria.


CONCLUSIONS
Rural GPs are more likely to fulfil the RAMUS rural background criterion, supporting the existence of the RAMUS scheme.
Laven
Gillian A
GA
Department of General Practice, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia. gillian.laven@adelaide.edu.au
Wilkinson
David
D
Beilby
Justin J
JJ
McElroy
Heather J
HJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011365:Professional Practice Location / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population; D017678:Sex Distribution