Medical licensing examinations in both Sweden and the US favor pharmacology over lifestyle

• Main Authors: B. Krachler, L. Jerdén, H. Tönnesen, C. Lindén
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
• Series: Preventive Medicine Reports
• Subjects: Medical education; Assessment; Step 3; Graduate; Living habits; Health behavior
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335521001431

Low priority of disease prevention and health promotion in medical education may contribute to lack of lifestyle-counseling in clinical practice. Pharmacology-related knowledge is valued 5 times higher compared to lifestyle-related knowledge in examinations on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in undergraduate medical education in Sweden. This study aims to establish (i) whether medical licensing examinations are biased to favor pharmacology- over lifestyle-related knowledge and (ii) whether such a bias is present in both Sweden and the US.We identified 204 NCD-related questions from previous Swedish licensing examinations, and 77 cases from a U.S. question bank commonly used to prepare for the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) Step 3. With the help of expected correct answers, we determined distribution of points attainable for knowledge in the respective category (lifestyle / pharmacology / other) for 5 major NCDs: coronary heart disease (CHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, hypertension, and stroke.The percentage of points attainable for lifestyle-related knowledge was 6.7 (95% CI 4.1–9.3) in Sweden and 4.6 (95%CI 0.0–9.1) in the U.S. The respective percentages for pharmacology-related knowledge were 32.6 (95% CI 26.3–38.8) and 44.5 (95% CI 33.2–55.8) percent. The pharmacology vs. lifestyle-quotas were 4.9 in Sweden and 9.8 in the U.S. Likelihoods of equal emphasis on lifestyle and pharmacology in NCDs was < 0.001 in both countries.There is a marked preference for pharmacology over lifestyle in medical licensing examinations in both Sweden and the U.S. Newly qualified doctors may be inadequately prepared to address preventable causes of NCDs.