The application of Cox regression model to investigate influential factors on the admission to higher education in holders of health associate degree in Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences

Introduction and The present study tries to investigate factors influencing continuing studies among graduates of associate of health sciences, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences (SKUMS). For this descriptive-analytical study, educational profiles of all health graduates of SKUMS between 1986- 2005 were examined and the data was gathered through a researcher-developed checklist and also phone calls. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 16 using Cox regression. From 398 respondents of the study with a mean age of 22.2 ± 2.25 (range: 20-39), 140 (35.2%) were male and remaining were female. Generally, 206 (51.8%) graduates had been entered to higher education. According to Cox regression, some factors, e.g. age, gender, marital status, residency, and GPA of associate of health sciences, were significantly effective on continuing studies and some others including associate course of study, course period, and diploma GPA had no significant effect on the chance of entrance to higher education levels. Growing older, one gradually enters other living arenas like marriage, making continuing studies marginalized. Therefore, it could be assumed that the factors influencing continuing studies should be considered a whole, i.e., the circumstances should be prepared to facilitate continuing studies before growing older and facing consequent life issues.