Underrepresentation of African Americans in Plastic Surgery: Examining Demographics, Specialty Factors, and Medical School Experiences

Abstract

Background: Racial representation among medical trainees translates into physicians that are able to communicate with diverse patient populations and are perceptive to health disparities. This is important within plastic surgery where an optimal physicianpatient relationship is essential to health outcomes.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to address underrepresentation of African Americans (AA) in plastic surgery through improving understanding of factors that may contribute to AA medical student interest in plastic surgery.

Design: This was a voluntary, cross-sectional survey. An online survey was designed to collect information on demographics, specialty factor importance, medical school experiences, and plastic surgery interest among medical students. The survey was distributed to medical students within three national medical organizations between August 2018 and February 2019. The following groups of respondents were statistically COMPARED: AAs interested vs. AAs not interested in plastic surgery and AA vs. Caucasian medical students both interested in plastic surgery.

Setting: Online survey for medical students in the United States.

Participants: All 428 participants were medical students that belonged to at least 1 of the 3 national medical organizations between August 2018 and February 2019.

Results: The survey was completed by 428 participants of which 142 were excluded for incomplete surveys, leaving 286 (66.8%) participants to be included in the study. Among AA medical students, 128 (75.3%) were not interested in Plastic Surgery and 42 (24.7%) were interested. The 2 groups were similar demographically but differed significantly across multiple specialty factors and medical school experiences (p < 0.05). When compared to interested Caucasian medical students (n = 30), interested AA medical students differed significantly in demographics, specialty factors, and medical school experiences (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: This study supports the implementation of medical school interventions emphasizing specialty factors and medical school experiences unique to AA medical students interested in plastic surgery to promote their application into the specialty.

Keywords: diversity; medical school; plastic surgery; survey; underrepresentation.