This investigation was to determine if rural origin adversely influenced access to a medical education for rural Kentuckians who applied to Kentucky medical schools. An ancillary purpose of the study was to determine the need for an affirmative action program for rural medical school applicants as a means to improve the distribution of physicians in rural areas. / The sample population was limited to applicants to Kentucky's two medical schools who had graduated from a Kentucky high school. Applicants' county of high school graduation was classified by rural or urban status, population and a defined socioeconomic level that was used to compare accepted and rejected applicants' demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, academic scores and their choices of undergraduate institutions and majors. / Applicants from the less populated and lower socioeconomic counties were disproportionately representative of the population of those counties. Urban applicants attending out-of-state institutions and urban applicants majoring in mathematics-engineering or physical sciences were accepted for admission to a medical school at significantly higher rates than for all other categories. Applicants' overall and science undergraduate grade-point averages, their overall and science Medical College Admission Test scores and accept or reject status were not found to be statistically independent of the population and socioeconomic level of their home counties (p = 0.0001). Discriminant analysis correctly classified 83 percent of the accepted and rejected applicants using four academic and one demographic indices. / It was concluded that academic achievement and access to a medical education were influenced by the demographic and socioeconomic background of Kentucky medical school applicants. Applicants from the more rural and the less affluent counties experienced inequality in access to a medical education. / The findings support legislation enacted by the 1980 Kentucky General Assembly establishing programs designed to increase both the number of rural medical school applicants and acceptees. Further, they imply that other states with large rural areas and persistent medical shortages should examine access to a medical education for their rural residents. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-07, Section: B, page: 2152. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74898 |
| Contributors | ANGEL HEBBELER, EVANGELINE LORRAINE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 128 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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