Gender Minority Physician Assistant/Associate Applicants and Likelihood of Matriculation: A Retrospective Analysis

Gender minorities are undermeasured among physician assistant/associate programs and across the profession. This study describes the 2020 to 2021 Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants self-identified gender minority applicant pool, examining whether gender minority status is associated with matriculation.

A retrospective cohort of 2020 to 2021 admission cycle participants (n = 30,123) was described and evaluated for associations between self-identified gender minority status and likelihood of program matriculation using logistic regression. Models were controlled for important potential confounders, including total undergraduate grade point average, race/ethnicity, hours of patient experience, and age.

Of the 30,123 total applicants, 0.21% (n = 63) self-identified as a gender minority. Total matriculation was 27.64% (n = 8325) compared with gender minority matriculation of 20.63% (n = 13). Gender minority status was associated with a nonsignificant lower likelihood of matriculation (odds ratio [OR] = 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.37-1.25). Fully adjusted models were unchanged controlling for academic achievement, patient care experience, age, and race/ethnicity (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.51-1.35).

These findings suggest that gender minority applicants have a similar likelihood of matriculation in physician assistant/associate programs as compared with non-gender minority applicants. Low prevalence of self-identified gender minority status could indicate reluctance to self-identify and is concerningly lower than population prevalence.