Factors associated with rural doctors' intention to continue a rural career: a survey of 3072 doctors in Japan.
OBJECTIVE
To show the relationship between the personal and educational backgrounds of rural doctors and their intention to continue a rural career.


METHODS
Nationwide postal survey.


METHODS
Public clinics or hospitals in municipalities that are classified as 'rural' by the national government.


METHODS
A total of 4896 doctors working for 828 public clinics and hospitals.


METHODS
A questionnaire was mailed. The questionnaire inquired about the subject's age, sex, hometown, exposure to rural practice in undergraduate education, postgraduate training, continuing medical education, current position and affiliation status with a medical school, as well as his or her intention to continue a rural career.


RESULTS
Response rate was 64%; 26% answered that they intended to continue a rural career. Postgraduate training in general internal medicine, general surgery, anaesthesiology, paediatrics and gastroenterology were positively related with the intention to continue a rural career (odds ratio = 2.045, 1.59, 1.30, 1.48, 1.38). Rural background, undergraduate exposure to rural practice, multispecialty-rotation in postgraduate training and current administrative position had positive correlations with the intention to continue in logistic regression analysis (odds ratio = 1.80, 2.47, 1.54, 2.17). Affiliation with a medical school department was negatively related with the intention to continue (odds ratio = 0.45).


CONCLUSIONS
In addition to the rural background of physicians, some undergraduate and postgraduate factors were independently associated with the intention to continue a rural career.
Matsumoto
Masatoshi
M
Department of Community and Family Medicine, Jichi Medical School, Yakushiji, Tochigi, Japan. matmo10@jb3.so-net.jp
Okayama
Masanobu
M
Inoue
Kazuo
K
Kajii
Eiji
E
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006280:Health Workforce; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D019035:Rural Health Services; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013038:Specialization