Introduction:

In Peru, specialist surgeons receive higher salaries than physicians from other specialties; on the other hand, more surgery specialists are needed to meet the current existing demand. This configuration could influence medical students to choose a surgical specialty in the future. The present study sought to determine the association between salary expectations and choosing surgical specialties.

Subjects and methods:

Cross-sectional analytical study from medical students in a Peruvian university. Future salary expectations and the intention of taking up a surgical specialty were measured using open questions, which were then categorized. Variables such as age, having relatives who were physicians, university ranking, and grouping by academic year were included in the analysis as confounding variables. Poisson regression models were employed to estimate possible associations and to perform fitting.

Results:

Data from 341 medical students were collected. The desire of having a salary higher than 4000 PER (1427 USD) per month was expressed by 50.7% of students, while 37.2% stated their intention to take up a surgical specialty in the future. After fitting for confounding variables, students who expected higher salaries were 58% more likely to set about studying a surgical specialty in the future in comparison with those who had the intention of studying other specialties (OR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.19-2.10).

Conclusions:

Medical students who desire higher salaries have a higher probability of choosing a surgical specialty than students with lower salary expectations.

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