DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND INTERNAL MEDICINE AS A CAREER CHOICE OF FINAL YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS

Introduction: Medical education requires a long duration of education and training. Medical stream is a diverse field; an assortment of clinical specialties of number of areas; clinical, psychological, surgical, field work, public health to name a few, with varied clinical environment, duties, and contact with patients. Methodology: Study was conducted in ten Medical colleges from three northern states of India (Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh). 677 final year medical students were included in the study. The study was designed as a cross-sectional self- administered questionnaire-based survey. Data were analyzed based on Frequencies, percentage, weighted scores and Chi square test. The findings were tabulated and represented with the help of suitable diagrammatic and graphical presentation. Results: revealed that around two-third were males (67.50%), majority were under 25 years, Hindus, from urban areas, joint families and 6.79% were married. Majority belonged to HIG. Statistically significant association of some demographic Characteristics (area of residence, gender, marital status and type of family) in selection of Internal medicine as specialty choice, whereas the association was not significant for age, religion and income group.