Maggots, Mucous and Monkey Meat: Does Disgust Sensitivity Affect Case Mix Seen During Residency?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Psychology
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Emergency physicians regularly encounter highly unpleasant situations involving bodily fluids and deformities.
• While procedural specialists like emergency medicine (EM) physicians generally exhibit lower disgust sensitivity, its impact on clinical practice remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if higher disgust sensitivity correlates with fewer exposure to "disgusting" cases during emergency medicine residency training.

Main Methods:

• Emergency medicine residents (n=40) completed the Disgust Scale Revised (DS-R).
• Cases were categorized as "disgust elicitors" based on potential for inducing disgust.
• The percentage of "disgust elicitor" cases was calculated relative to total cases seen by residents.

Main Results:

• EM residents had a mean DS-R score of 1.20, significantly lower than the general population mean of 1.67.
• No significant correlation (r = -0.04) was found between "disgust elicitor" case percentage and DS-R scores.
• No significant difference in DS-R scores was observed between junior and senior residents.

Conclusions:

• Increased disgust sensitivity does not appear to be associated with a reduced proportion of "disgust elicitor" cases encountered during emergency medicine residency.
• Findings suggest that disgust sensitivity may not be a determining factor in the types of clinical cases residents are exposed to.