Can the 12-item general health questionnaire be used to identify medical students who might ‘struggle’ on the medical course? A prospective study on two cohorts

Table 1 Pre-admission socio-demographic characteristics of the 2006 and 2007 cohorts

	Entry cohort		Study group		Non-study group		Chi-square test, study vs non-study groups *
	n	%	n	%	n	%	p
2006 entry	251		164		87
Gender
Males	94	37.5	61	37.2	33	37.9	NS
Females	157	62.5	103	62.8	54	62.1	NS
Age group
Under 21	234	93.2	155	94.5	79	90.8	NS
21 or over	17	6.8	9	5.5	8	9.2	NS
Domicile (as Fee status)
UK	211	84.1	137	83.5	74	85.1	NS
EU/OS	40	15.9	27	16.5	13	14.9	NS
Ethnicity
White	168	66.9	116	70.7	52	59.8	NS
Non-White	80	31.9	46	28.0	34	39.1
Not declared	3	1.2	2	1.2	1	1.1
Last qualifications
Standard A levels	231	92.0	157	95.7	74	85.1	0.003 †
Non-standard qualifications	20	8.0	7	5.5	13	14.9
Not known	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
2007 entry	254		160		94
Gender
Males	100	39.4	65	40.6	35	37.2	NS
Females	154	60.6	95	59.4	59	62.8	NS
Age group
Under 21	251	98.8	158	98.8	93	98.9	NS
21 or over	3	1.2	2	1.2	1	1.1	NS
Domicile (as Fee status)
UK	222	87.4	140	87.5	82	87.2	NS
EU/OS	32	12.6	20	12.5	12	12.8	NS
Ethnicity
White	160	63.0	106	66.3	54	57.4	NS
Non-White	76	29.9	42	26.3	34	36.2
Not declared	18	7.1	12	7.5	6	6.4
Last qualifications
Standard A levels	232	91.3	147	91.9	85	90.4	NS
Non-standard qualifications	19	7.5	12	7.5	7	7.4	NS
Not known	3	1.2	1	0.6	2	.2