JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Using data from applicants who did not achieve the minimum score in the 2019-2021 calls, we explore possible differences based on sex, nationality and the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim is to find the explanatory factors associated with the final score obtained and to offer relevant information for health planning, which must respond to the needs and expectations of citizens in terms of health, as well as to the social, economic and material progress of people. This work can help to optimize access to the ESF and reduce the areas of medical desert in Spain.

Objective:

To approximate the factors that determine failure in the access test for specialized medical training in Spain with the aim of better understanding the extent to which differences based on sex, nationality and the context of the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to explaining such failure.

Methods:

Econometric modelling of the final results obtained on the exam and identifying the explanatory factors that determine the results and their relevance, effect and meaning.

Results:

Based on the results obtained in the tests of the 2019-2021 calls, it is verified that the exam and academic records, together with demographic and calendar factors, constitute determinants of the observed behaviour of the final results. From the results obtained, it does not appear that being a man or woman either favours or diminishes the final grade obtained. In contrast, being Spanish constitutes a relevant explanatory factor in the final result. The calendar effect directly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic allows us to quantify the negative impact exerted on the final results.

Conclusions:

(1) This study investigates the impact of factors such as sex, nationality and the COVID-19 pandemic on access to specialized health training in Spain. (2) Empirically, not being Spanish acts as an unfavourable differential fixed factor, but favourable when said condition interacts with the variable that approximates the academic record. (3) The impact of language is not perceived as a limiting factor. The test exclusively evaluates knowledge of medical content. (4) The negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are visualized in the final scores.