Urban and rural origins of Otago medical students

To investigate the home town population characteristics of medical students admitted to the Otago Medical School (OMS) in the context of recruitment for rural practice.

Data on home town population characteristics were collected from successful New Zealand applicants to the OMS between 1987 and 2000. Trends in the data across these years were examined, and the data compared to the wider New Zealand population.

Of the students surveyed, 2353 responded to the questionnaire (98.4%). Of these, 2257 (94.4%) had identifiable home towns in New Zealand at the year before entry into the OMS. Of those with identifiable New Zealand home towns, 84.5% came from main urban areas, while only 2.9% came from rural areas, compared with 11.9% of the wider New Zealand population aged 17-27 years. The proportion of students in each of the urban/rural groups indicated only minor trends across the years surveyed, with the main urban group increasing and the rural and secondary urban groups decreasing.

Between 1987 and 2000, in comparison with the wider New Zealand population, the pool of Otago medical students was disproportionately weighted towards highly populated, main urban areas and away from rural, low populated areas. The significance of the under-representation of rural students is discussed in relation to the recruitment and retention of rural doctors.