Influence of Affirmative Action Policies on Socio Demographic Profile of Medical Students from a Brazilian University

ABSTRACT Affirmative action policies adopted by University of Campinas (Unicamp) in 2005 entrance exams, added to 2014 modifications, and more recently in 2016, lead to a big profile change of University of Campinas medical students. Therefore, this paper aims to describe academics’ sociodemographic profile, as well as their aspirations in choice of medical career and future specialty. The cross-sectional study included 290 undergraduate years 1, 3 and 6 (Y1, Y3 and Y6) medical students from Unicamp who answered an anonymous questionnaire applied after approval by the Institutional Review Board. Socio demographic data and factors potentially influencing decisions on medical career and specialty choices were analyzed. Data analysis showed a sample composed mostly of white (77.5%), female (63.2%), 20-24 years population, from the State of São Paulo (84.8%) and interior (62.3%). For Y1, there was statistically significant difference for ‘pardo’ (22.6%) – it can be translated as brown – and black (6.6%) – there wasn’t black in Y3 and Y6 – ethnic groups, public school provenience – both elementary school (42.5%) and high school (73.6%) –, lower maternal schooling (high school, p