The National Prevalence of Illegal and Inappropriate Residency Interview Questions

OBJECTIVES: To document the prevalence of illegal and inappropriate questions asked of residency applicants during the 2001-2002 interview season. We hypothesized that applicants were being asked illegal questions and that women were more frequently asked questions regarding family planning and marriage than men. METHODS: We conducted a cross sectional survey of all applicants applying to residency programs through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) of the AAMC. Applicants were asked to recall if they experienced questions relating to various topics including marital status, age, ethnicity, and family planning. Surveys were sent after rank lists were submitted, and analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 28957 applicants, 12560 returned a completed survey (43.4%). Of respondents from US Medical Schools there was a 50.3% response rate (9107 of 18113). 6755 (53.8%) were male. During the course of their interviews: 67.9% were asked at some point about their marital status, 42.1% if they had children, 21.3% if they intend to have children, 23.0% about their age, 30.5% about their ethnicity, 17.1% about their religion, 1.2% about their sexual preference, and 18.4% to give a verbal commitment to a program. Overall, 85.3% of respondents reported some form of illegal or inappropriate question during their interviews. Women were more likely to be asked questions about their plans for having children than men (25.8% vs. 17.4%, p < 0.001 (OR 1.6)) and more likely to be asked questions about couples matching (26.9% vs. 19.3%, p < 0.001 (OR 1.5)). They were equally likely to be asked about their marital status or if they currently have children. Applying to Emergency Medicine was protective (p =.004 (OR 0.75)) for being asked illegal questions as compared with other specialties. CONCLUSIONS: Applicants to residencies are frequently being asked illegal and inappropriate questions. Women face significantly more questions about family planning than men.