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Biomedical subjects

M Hojat

Publications and source records attributed to M Hojat.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Stability and change of interest in obstetrics-gynecology among medical students: eighteen years of longitudinal data.

PURPOSE: To compare the percentage of students who maintain interest in specializing in obstetrics-gynecology during medical school with the percentages of students maintaining interest in other selected specialties, and to examine changes of interest from obstetrics-gynecology to other specialties and from other specialties to obstetrics-gynecology. METHOD: A longitudinal cohort study comparing the stabilities of students' interests in obstetrics-gynecology and in other specialties was performed by using data on 3,889 graduates of 18 classes of Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University between 1975 and 1992. RESULTS: The percentage of students who maintained interest in obstetrics-gynecology, as measured at the beginning and end of medical school, was 19%, compared with 40% for internal medicine and surgery, 39% for family medicine, and 22% for pediatrics. By the time they graduated, some students who had planned as freshman to pursue obstetrics-gynecology had changed their interests to internal medicine (19%), surgery (17%), family medicine (8%), or pediatrics (7%). In turn, obstetrics-gynecology attracted students who had initially expressed interest in other specialties: 17% from family medicine, 14% from surgery, 12% from internal medicine, and 8% from pediatrics. Despite the low percentage of students who maintained interest in obstetrics-gynecology, the overall percentage of students interested in obstetrics-gynecology at the time of graduation was somewhat greater than the percentage of students interested at the start of medical school. CONCLUSION: That only about one-fifth of the students initially interested in obstetrics-gynecology maintained their interest, and that many students' interests changed from one specialty to another, suggest that factors contributing to changes in interest need further investigation.

Career Choice↗
PubMed1993

The world declaration of the rights of the child: anticipated challenges.

The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child which was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly is described as a memorable chapter in the history of human civilization. This landmark document has neither been ratified by the United States nor publicized by child health professionals and media. A few of the Convention's guidelines related to early parent-child relations are briefly cited and the role of parents, particularly that of mothers, in protecting their children's rights is discussed. The author anticipates implementation of the guidelines might generate conflict of interest among groups with nontraditional views on family and child care and challenges to the implementations of the guidelines could therefore be expected. Among the reasons for such anticipated challenges are the ongoing controversial and emotional arguments in the literature on child development concerning maternal paid employment and alternative child care, changing views and emphasis on a new definition of marriage, family and motherhood by feminist groups, and inadequate educational indoctrination on child-care issues among some family physicians and pediatricians. The guidelines should not be buried under personal agendas, organizational biases, wishful thinking, ignorance, and political considerations. Finally, the obligation of professionals in health and human services as well as State authorities to support positive ideology on children's rights is discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1992

The Jefferson-Penn State B.S.-M.D. program: a 26-year experience.

Since the 1960s a number of physicians have completed both their baccalaureate and their M.D. degrees in six or fewer years. In this longitudinal study the authors track the academic performances, clinical ratings, and career follow-up data of 659 students in one of these accelerated programs, the Jefferson Medical College-Pennsylvania State University B.S.-M.D. program, from entering years 1964 through 1989. The medical school performances, clinical performances in residencies, and rates of board certification and faculty appointment of the accelerated students compared favorably with those of a control group of medical students with similar high school credentials who had followed a four-year baccalaureate program. The authors conclude that a carefully chosen group of students can achieve high academic standards in an accelerated medical school program, graduate as younger physicians able to perform well in postgraduate training, and go on to highly productive careers in medicine.

Achievement↗
PubMed1992

Comparing the accuracies of entire-group and subgroup models to predict NBME-I scores for medical school applicants.

To address the question of whether prediction models for subgroups of medical school applicants lead to more accurate predictions of performance than does one model for an entire group of applicants, the authors used data from two groups of students at Jefferson Medical College: 415 students who entered Jefferson in 1985 and 1986, and 396 who entered in 1987 and 1988. Both groups were divided into two subgroups by gender and two subgroups by age. Data from the first group were used to develop prediction models based on the entire group and on its four subgroups. The predictors were undergraduate grade-point averages and Medical College Admission Test scores; the criterion measures were scores on the National Board of Medical Examiners Part I examinations. The prediction models were then applied to data from the second group and its four subgroups: differences in the validity coefficients (.40 to .56) and residual scores (7.2 to 17.9) were not considered to be of practical importance. Hence, the authors suggest that gender and age do not contribute to a prediction bias and that an entire-group prediction model can be used without serious concern for over-or underestimating the predicted scores.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Reexamination of relationships between students' undergraduate majors, medical school performances, and career plans at Jefferson Medical College.

A reexamination of the possible relationships between medical students' undergraduate academic majors and their medical school performances and career plans seems appropriate, given the continuing changes in the characteristics of the medical school applicant pool in the last several years. This study investigated these relationships by comparing cognitive and noncognitive characteristics of medical students who had had different undergraduate majors. The study sample consisted of 812 students who entered Jefferson Medical College between 1985 and 1988. They were classified into six categories based on their undergraduate majors: biological, chemical and physical, social and behavioral, other sciences, humanities and arts, and indeterminate majors. Results indicated that performances in the basic science component of medical education were about the same for students with different undergraduate majors. The groups had similar rates of delayed graduation, but the attrition rate was highest for students who had majored in humanities and arts. The students in undergraduate disciplines traditionally oriented toward medicine (biological, physical, and chemical sciences) were younger and had made the decision to become a physician at earlier ages than had their counterparts with undergraduate majors in social sciences and humanities. Also, the groups differed with regard to their estimates of their future incomes and plans for professional activities after graduation. Similarities concerning the students' preferred professional activities were also noticed among the groups.

Career Choice↗
PubMed1990

Postbaccalaureate preparation and performance in medical school.

The question whether postbaccalaureate preparation before matriculation in medical school contributes to medical students' performance was addressed by this study. A total of 610 (91%) of the students who entered Jefferson Medical College between 1985 and 1987 were the study sample. Fifty-eight of these students had taken nondegree undergraduate premedical courses and 15 had taken nondegree graduate courses. Fourteen students held graduate degrees and 60 students had some combination of the aforementioned types of postbaccalaureate preparations. The other 463 students had not taken postbaccalaureate courses. Grades received in medical school courses such as anatomy, biochemistry, mechanisms of disease, physiology, microbiology, pathology, and pharmacology, as well as total scores on Part I of the National Board of Medical Examiners examination were selected as performance variables. Statistical analyses showed that the students who had taken nondegree postbaccalaureate courses had lower undergraduate grade-point averages than those without such courses and received lower grades on some measures of performance in medical school. The students with such additional academic backgrounds were also older than the average medical student. When adjustments were made for undergraduate grade-point averages by applying analysis of covariance, the observed differences that favored the group without postbaccalaureate preparation either became nonsignificant or favored those with such preparation. The differences favoring those without postbaccalaureate preparation could be accounted for mostly by these students' higher undergraduate grade-point averages and younger ages. Implications for admission decisions with regard to the changing applicant pool are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1990

Differences in professional activities, perceptions of professional problems, and practice patterns between men and women graduates of Jefferson Medical College.

Differences between men and women graduates of one medical school in practice patterns, professional activities, and problems were investigated. A questionnaire was mailed in 1986 to 600 physicians, randomly selected from 1,102 who had graduated from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University between 1977 and 1981. Four hundred fifty (364 men and 86 women) responded (75%). The women were less likely than the men to be employed full-time; however, proportionately more women than men held full-time academic appointments, treated patients from low-income families, and served in underserved areas in inner cities. The women reported working fewer hours per week and having fewer patients than did the men. The women published scientific articles as often as did the men but were less likely to serve on professional committees, receive professional awards, or develop medical procedures. The women were less concerned about the oversupply of physicians and malpractice litigation. Implications of the findings for health manpower planning and practice pattern expectations are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Perception of childhood dissatisfaction with parents and selected personality traits in adulthood.

This study tested the hypotheses that perceptions of childhood dissatisfaction with parents are associated with higher scores on measures of intensity and chronicity of loneliness, anxiety, neuroticism, psychoticism, misanthropy, and external locus of control and lower scores on measures of self-esteem and sociability. The subjects were 537 Iranian students studying in American and Iranian universities. Both hypotheses were confirmed in a multivariate statistical model. We also found that dissatisfaction with parents was related to a lack of satisfactory relationships with peers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Students' certainty during course test-taking and performance on clerkships and board exams.

Psychometric aspects of multiple-choice tests were investigated using a confidence-weighted scoring technique. The contributions of two indices, overconfidence and underconfidence, in the prediction of subsequent academic performance of examinees were studied. A total of 444 sophomore students (entering classes of 1982 and 1983) in one medical school were asked to indicate their confidence, on a 5-point scale (100, 75, 50, 25, and 0), in the correctness of their responses to each multiple-choice item on an Introduction to Clinical Medicine examination. Examinations were scored in two ways: in the conventional way, using the total number of correct responses, and by a confidence-weighted technique based on the level of certainty indicated for each response by the examinee. Only the conventional score determined the grade; the confidence-weighted score was calculated for the purely experimental purposes of this study. Overconfidence and underconfidence indices were also calculated by using the indicated levels of certainty. Improvements in the psychometrics of the examinations were observed when confidence-weighted scoring was used. In multiple-regression models, the confidence-weighted scores and indices of over- and underconfidence contributed significantly to predicting scores of the students studied on Parts I and II of the National Board of Medical Examiners examinations, whereas the conventional score did not contribute to the prediction of Part II scores. Significant differences on junior clerkship examinations and ratings were observed between those who were highly overconfident and those who were slightly overconfident. The highly overconfident students also estimated higher future incomes than did those who were slightly overconfident.

Attitude↗
PubMed1988

Postbaccalaureate preparation and performance in medical school.

Medical students with some postbaccalaureate preparations were compared with those without such preparations. Before adjustment for undergraduate GPAs significant differences were observed in the favor of those without such preparations, but after adjustments for undergraduate GPAs, the previously obtained differences became either non-significant, or significant in the favor of those with postbaccalaurate preparations.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1987

Predictive validity of the MCAT as a function of undergraduate institution.

The question of whether the predictive ability of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) differed for students from different undergraduate institutions was addressed by the authors in the study reported here. Two groups of students were studied: group 1 comprised 1,859 students who entered Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University between 1964 and 1977, and group 2 consisted of 999 students who entered the college between 1978 and 1982. Ten undergraduate institutions with at least 20 matriculants in each group were selected for analysis. Group 1 students had taken the old version and group 2 the new version of the MCAT. Scores on the Science subtest of the old MCAT were used as the predictor for group 1, and scores on the Science Problems subtest of the new MCAT were used as the predictor for group 2. First-year and second-year medical school grade-point averages and total scores on the Part I and Part II examinations of the National Board of Medical Examiners were the performance measures used. Validity coefficients were derived of the predictive value of the MCAT scores at each of the 10 undergraduate institutions. Striking differences were found in validity coefficients among these institutions. These differences raise questions about the predictive validity of the MCAT when scores for different undergraduate institutions are combined in deriving the coefficients. Possible explanations, implications for admissions decisions and validity studies, and limitations of these findings are discussed.

College Admission Test↗
PubMed1987

Using ratings of resident competence to evaluate NBME examination passing standards.

The passing standards of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) examinations were empirically evaluated by analyzing the distributions of examination scores received by 1,994 graduates of one medical school in relation to the clinical competence ratings given to the graduates by their first-year residency directors. A significant association was found between the NBME examination scores and ratings in the cognitive areas of clinical competence. The graduates who scored 420 or less on the NBME Part I or the Part II examination received significantly lower medical knowledge ratings than did the total group of graduates. A similar analysis of NBME Part III examination scores was less clear-cut but also suggested that a score of 420 or less could identify those graduates at significant risk of receiving low knowledge ratings. When low ratings were used as an outcome measure, analysis showed that the NBME Part II examination was not sensitive in detecting such graduates. Based on these data, the authors do not propose changes in the passing standards for the NBME examinations but recommend that these standards continue to be reassessed and further measures be taken to strengthen the internal evaluation methods in medical schools.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1987

Psychometric characteristics and dimensionality of a Persian version of Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale.

The Rosenberg Self-esteem scale was translated into Persian and 12 Iranian bilingual judges confirmed the soundness of translation. The psychometric properties of the Persian version of Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale were studied in two samples of Iranian college students separately. Sample I consisted of 232 Iranian students in American universities, and Sample II comprised 305 Iranian students in Iranian universities. Criterion measures of loneliness, depression, anxiety, neuroticism, psychoticism, misanthropy, locus of control, tendency to dissimulate, and measures of relationship with parents, peers, and academic achievement were obtained. Item-total score correlations and alpha reliabilities supported the internal consistency of the scale. Test-retest reliabilities indicated the stability of the scores, and correlations between scores of the scale, and criterion measures supported the concurrent validity of the Rosenberg scale. Factor analysis of the Rosenberg scores confirmed the unidimensionality of the scale.

Adolescent↗