Research article summary:

A levels and intelligence as predictors of medical careers in UK doctors: 20 year prospective study.

Abstract Extract:
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether A level grades (achievement) and intelligence (ability) predict doctors careers. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with follow up after 20 years by postal questionnaire. SETTING: A UK medical school in London. PARTICIPANTS: ... (Full abstract text below)

Published 2003Jul in Journal: BMJ (Language : eng)

Full Pubmed Extract

This information was retrieved, real-time, on your behalf from the public area of the Pubmed website:

1. BMJ. 2003 Jul;327(7407):139-42

A levels and intelligence as predictors of medical careers in UK doctors: 20 year prospective study.

McManus IC, Smithers E, Partridge P, Keeling A, Fleming PR

Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT. i.mcmanus@ucl.ac.uk

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether A level grades (achievement) and intelligence (ability) predict doctors' careers. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with follow up after 20 years by postal questionnaire. SETTING: A UK medical school in London. PARTICIPANTS: 511 doctors who had entered Westminster Medical School as clinical students between 1975 and 1982 were followed up in January 2002. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time taken to reach different career grades in hospital or general practice, postgraduate qualifications obtained (membership/fellowships, diplomas, higher academic degrees), number of research publications, and measures of stress and burnout related to A level grades and intelligence (result of AH5 intelligence test) at entry to clinical school. General health questionnaire, Maslach burnout inventory, and questionnaire on satisfaction with career at follow up. RESULTS: 47 (9%) doctors were no longer on the Medical Register. They had lower A level grades than those who were still on the register (P < 0.001). A levels also predicted performance in undergraduate training, performance in postregistration house officer posts, and time to achieve membership qualifications (Cox regression, P < 0.001; b=0.376, SE=0.098, exp(b)=1.457). Intelligence did not independently predict dropping off the register, career outcome, or other measures. A levels did not predict diploma or higher academic qualifications, research publications, or stress or burnout. Diplomas, higher academic degrees, and research publications did, however, significantly correlate with personality measures. CONCLUSIONS: Results of achievement tests, in this case A level grades, which are particularly used for selection of students in the United Kingdom, have long term predictive validity for undergraduate and postgraduate careers. In contrast, a test of ability or aptitude (AH5) was of little predictive validity for subsequent medical careers.

PMID : 12869457 [PubMed - Indexed for MEDLINE]

This information is obtained from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright. Type "NLM copyright" into Google for more information.

Full Author Information

First Name	LastName	Initials
I C	McManus	IC
Eleni	Smithers	E
Philippa	Partridge	P
A	Keeling	A
Peter R	Fleming	PR

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT. i.mcmanus@ucl.ac.uk

3rd Party provider links

Click the links below to go to related 3rd party information:

MESH categories and related page links

This article was linked to the MESH categories shown on the left below. The links on the right are related Memletics pages.

Links for this article

For links to places where you can get the full text of this article see links. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text.

New! Using similar technology to this site, we have launched find-health-articles.com, targeting over 1 million health research article abstracts.

Here are some articles related to this one (by title keywords):

Transnational industrial power, the medical profession and the regulatory state: adverse drug reactions and the crisis over the safety of Halcion in the Netherlands and the UK.

Self-esteem and student nurses: a cross-cultural study of nursing students in Thailand and the UK.

Previous consultation and self reported health status as predictors of future demand for primary care.

Predicting career decisions in primary care medicine: a theoretical analysis.

Anatomy 1999-2000: the curriculum, who teaches it and how?

Reported levels of alcohol consumption and binge drinking within the UK undergraduate student population over the last 25 years.

Perceptions of how well graduates are prepared for the role of pre-registration house officer: a comparison of outcomes from a traditional and an integrated PBL curriculum.

Patients and doctors: reformulating the UK health policy community?

Medical students personality characteristics and academic performance: a five-factor model perspective.

Meat consumption in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohorts: results from 24-hour dietary recalls.

>>> Get more research article abstracts like these, or browse abstracts.

Keywords in this article:

ability, academic, achievement, after, ah, aptitude, assess, b=, burnout, careers, case, clinical, cohort, conclusions, contrast, correlate, cox, degrees, design, different, diplomas, doctors, dropping, entered, entry, exp, fellowships, follow, followed, general, grades, health, higher, hospital, house, independently, intelligence, inventory, january, kingdom, level, levels, little, london, longer, lower, main, maslach, measures, medical, membership, not, number, objective, officer, other, outcome, participants, particularly, performance, personality, postal, postgraduate, postregistration, posts, practice, predict, predicted, predictive, prospective, publications, qualifications, questionnaire, reach, register, regression, related, research, result, results, satisfaction, school, se=, selection, setting, still, stress, students, study, subsequent, taken, term, test, tests, time, training, uk, undergraduate, united, up, validity, westminster, whether, who, years

Also, see our new free speed reading online course (beta version)