Willingness of middle school students to engage in medicine and influencing factors during COVID-19 pandemic / 四川精神卫生

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the willingness of middle school students to engage in medicine and its influencing factors during COVID-19 pandemic in Lanzhou， so as to provide references for the early career planning education on middle school students. MethodsConvenient sampling method was used to choose 1 795 middle school students from 5 schools in Lanzhou from July 21 to July 31， 2022 for this study where an online questionnaire survey was distributed to collect data. A self-compiled questionnaire was used to gather the general information， assess the willingness to engage in medicine and seek the underlying reasons. The psychological resilience level of students was assessed using Resilience Scale for Adolescents. Then multivariate Logistic regression analysis was conducted to screen the factors associated with the willingness of middle school students to engage in medicine. ResultsAfter the local outbreak of COVID-19 in Lanzhou， 835 （46.52%） middle school students demonstrated their willingness to engage in medicine， and the top three reasons for their willingness were being affected by medical staff during the pandemic （75.69%）， having interests in medical sciences （67.31%）， and the potential increase of attention to national medical development after the epidemic （43.23%）. Logistical regression analysis showed that female gender （OR=1.438， P<0.01）， family members engaged in the medical and health industry （OR=1.574， P<0.01） and having a high psychological resilience score （OR=1.011， P<0.01） were related to the clear willingness to engage in medicine， while studying in senior middle school （OR=0.473， P<0.01） and excessive exposure （≥50%） to negative information during the epidemic （OR=0.797， P<0.05） were related to declining willingness to engage in medicine. ConclusionAfter the COVID-19 outbreak in Lanzhou， a large proportion of local middle school students show their willingness to engage in medicine， especially among those of female gender， having family members engaged in the medical and health industry and having high level of psychological resilience. Whereas students studying in senior middle school and with excessive exposure to negative information during the outbreak indicate low willingness to engage in medicine.