Rural family medicine as a career option among Hungarian medical students

Figures & data

Table 1. The presence of family medicine in Hungarian universities in 2020.

Presence of family medicine	Debrecen	Pécs	Budapest	Szeged*^2
Theory	V*.: 1 semester: seminar	IV.: 1 semester: lecture + seminar	IV.: 4 h	IV.: 2 semester – elective
Practice in family practice	IV.: 1 week	VI.: 60 h	IV.: 16 h VI.: 1 week	VI.: 1 week
Thesis or Research opportunity	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Other	Elective subjects	I.: Introduction to medical communication: 1 semester Medical communication practice − 30 h of summer practice in family practice Elective subjects	I.: Introduction to patient care seminar: 1 semester VI.: 6 weeks elective practice in family practice Elective subjects	IV.: Doctor – patient communication: half-day training and half-day practice in family practice

*: year; *²: Compulsory family medicine lecture was introduced in 2022 in Szeged.

Table 2. Sample characteristics.

Variable		Valid (N)	n (%)
Age [mean ± SD]		465	23.5 ± 2.1 years
Female		464	288 (62.1)
At least one parent with a higher education degree		465	365 (79.0)
Being a physician’s child		465	85 (18.3)
Family or friends working in general practice		462	121 (26.2)
Family or friends working in the preferred speciality		458	81 (17.7)
Come from…		457
Urban area	Capital city		386 (84.5)	85 (18.6)
	Big city			160 (35.0)
	Small town			141 (30.8)
Rural area			71 (15.5)
University		465
Debrecen			145 (31.2)
Pécs			38 (8.2)
Budapest			131 (28.2)
Szeged			151 (32.5)
Year		465
Fourth			213 (45.8)
Fifth			252 (54.2)

The most important data are bold.

Figure 1. Medical students’ origin, workplace and living place plans.

Table 3. Results of the univariate and of the multivariate analysis (UVA and MVA).

Variables	Univariate analysis							Multivariate analysis (It contains all selected variables)
	Options	Do you plan to work in a rural area in the future?			Do you consider it likely that you will work in a rural area in the future?				Do you plan to work in a rural area in the future? (Goodness of fit: 0.2073)		Do you consider it likely that you will work in a rural area in the future? (Goodness of fit: 0.1971)
		No	Yes	p	No	Yes	p	Options	OR	p	OR	p
University	Debrecen	110	35	0.141	126	19	0.284	Pécs/Debrecen	1.86	0.165	2.01	0.190
	Pécs	26	11		26	7		Budapest/Debrecen	0.93	0.848	1.90	0.111
	Budapest	106	25		107	22		Szeged/Debrecen	1.50	0.187	2.36	0.018
	Szeged	104	46		118	32
Gender	male	125	50	0.210	142	29	0.799	female/male	0.69	0.124	0.93	0.788
	female	220	67		234	51
Where did you grow up?	non-rural	295	90	0.018	323	57	0.001	rural/non-rural	1.97	0.024	3.24	<0.001
	rural	47	27		50	23
Where do you plan to live in the future?	Hungary	264	85	0.278	278	67	0.094	Abroad/Hungary	1.74	0.049	0.66	0.249
	abroad	71	30		87	12
At the moment, I would like to be a(n)…	other	337	102	<0.001	362	71	0.010	family doctor / other	1.59	0.561	0.68	0.639
	family doctor	7	14		13	8
Long-term, I plan to work in a(n)…	other	334	97	<0.001	357	68	0.002	family practice / other	4.90	0.014	4.99	0.018
	family practice	12	20		20	12

The results where we found significant correlation are bold.

Figure 2. Probability of the medical students' rural work.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.