Medical students with disabilities were more than 50% more likely to experience general, gender-based, and race-based discrimination during medical school, according to a national cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open.

Among 45,705 graduating medical students surveyed between 2020 and 2022, 22.2% reported general discrimination, 21.9% reported gender-based discrimination, and 11.8% reported race-based discrimination. Students with disabilities faced significantly greater risks across all categories: general discrimination (relative risk [RR], 1.5), gender-based discrimination (RR, 1.6), and race-based discrimination (RR, 1.5) compared with peers without disabilities.

Black female medical students with disabilities reported the highest rates of race-based (60.4%) and general discrimination (45.7%), while Asian female students with disabilities reported elevated rates of gender-based (46.1%) and general discrimination (42.6%). White female students with disabilities had the highest prevalence of gender-based discrimination (48.7%).

The study analyzed self-reported data from the Association of American Medical Colleges Graduation Questionnaire administered at accredited US MD-granting institutions. Of the respondents, 3,863 (8.5%) reported having a disability, 24,163 (52.9%) identified as female, 10,100 (22.1%) as Asian, 2,661 (5.8%) as Black, and 4,524 (9.9%) as Hispanic. Modified Poisson regression using Stata, version 18.0 quantified the associations.

“These findings highlight the need to address intersecting forms of discrimination for medical students with disabilities,” noted lead author Mytien Nguyen, MS of the Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues.

The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Source: JAMA Network Open