Being part of a minority group opens medical students up to greater mistreatment than their peers, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found.
Researchers analyzed data from the 2016 and 2017 Association of American Medical Colleges Graduation Questionnaire, which surveys graduating students at all 140 accredited allopathic U.S. medical schools.
For this study, researchers analyzed responses from 27,504 medical students, of which:
• 25,763 were heterosexual
• 13,351 were female
• 16,521 were white
• 5,641 were Asian
• 2,433 were from another underrepresented minority
• 2,376 were multiracial
• 1,463 were lesbian, gay or bisexual
Researchers found that 40.9 percent of female students reported at least one episode of mistreatment, compared to 25.2 percent of male students.
A greater proportion of Asian (31.9 percent), multiracial (38 percent) and underrepresented minority students (32.9 percent) reported at least one episode of mistreatment compared to their white counterparts (24 percent).
About 44 percent of lesbian, gay, or bisexual students reported at least one episode of mistreatment, compared to 23.6 percent of heterosexual students.
More female, underrepresented minority, Asian, multiracial and lesbian, gay, or bisexual students reported two or more types of mistreatment compared to their male, white and heterosexual counterparts.