Motivations for Choosing Field of Study among Medical and Dental Students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

Our aim was to evaluate factors affecting the choices made by first-year dental and medical students in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The subjects in the present descriptive cross-sectional study consisted of 104 first-year dental and medical students in the University in 2012‒2013. A questionnaire was given to the students, which included demographic data and prioritization of motives. In designing the questionnaire, nine items were taken into account including income, social status, owning a private office, serving the community, feasibility of working with the hands, self-regulation of working hours, an interest in the field, recommendation by the family and communication, and contact with community members. Data were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test using SPSS. Enjoying a high social status was the most important factor (94.2%) in choosing dentistry as a major by dental students. An interest in the field (88.2%) was the second factor in their selection of dentistry. Recommendation by the family and serving the community with a frequency of 50% and contact with community members with a frequency of 51% were the least important in choosing dentistry. A high social status (75%) was the most important factor in choosing medicine as a major by medical students. A high income (73.1%) was the second factor in choosing medicine for them. Serving the community with 43.1% and the feasibility of working with the hands with 28.9% were the least important factors in choosing medicine. Dentistry and medicine are professions that still enjoy a high social status and most students choose these majors in order to attain such status. Differences in motives behind choosing a major by students of these two fields are related to the nature of the professions.