[Similarities and differences in the social background of female medical, nursing and public health visiting students].
According to our knowledge, there has never been a comprehensive research in Hungary dealing with healthcare university or college students' social background.


OBJECTIVE
The main objectives of our cross-section research were to analyze differences in the social background of female students who decided to become doctors, professional nurses and health visitors.


METHODS
This research was conducted among female medical and nursing college students at the Semmelweis University. There were 295 students invited to participate, the response rate was 68,08% (N = 201). Data analysis was performed by SPSS software by using descriptive methods of statistics.


RESULTS
We found a decisive difference among medical, nursing and health visitor students while analyzing a number of socio-demographic characteristics. Most medical students came from families where the parents had college or university degrees, but we can state that there is a minimal likelihood in the case of college students that they are descendants of parents with higher educational degrees. We did not find statistical differences in the three student sample groups regarding their marital status, but fewer nursing college students lived in marriage or household partnership.


CONCLUSIONS
We found a significant difference in the social background of nursing college and medical students. The social disadvantages of nursing and health visitor students are more considerable than those of medical students.
Semmelweis Egyetem, Egészségtudományi Kar, Egészségügyi Kultúrtörténeti Tanszék, Budapest. feith@se-etk.hu
Helga Judit
HJ
Feith
Zsuzsanna
Z
Soósné Kiss
Agnes
A
Kovácsné Tóth
Péter
P
Balázs
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005220:Fathers / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education*; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*