The specialty choices of graduates from Brighton and Sussex Medical School: a longitudinal cohort study

Table 1 Rotated Component Matrix showing the loadings of each item on to the four aspects of a specialty that influenced choice

Item name	Lifestyle	Money and status	Needed a job	Using intellect to help others
Suits my personality	0.525			0.439
Suits my skills & aptitude	0.287			0.495
Intellectually stimulating	−0.321	0.320		0.667
Change people’s lives				0.613
Opportunity for research				0.659
Right patient contact			0.204	0.644
New technologies	−0.274	0.558		0.321
Training opportunities		0.319	0.290	0.503
Easy to get job	0.419		0.684
Needed job this year			0.801
Good promotion		0.409	0.521
Job security	0.477	0.574	0.281
Can change specialty later		0.457	0.294
Well paid	0.504	0.692
Well regarded		0.780		0.262
Private practice		0.701
Geographic location	0.539	0.379	0.276
On call & shifts	0.822
Family friendly	0.878
Outside interests	0.862
Job control	0.853
Less discrimination		0.366	0.213	0.305
Best of bad bunch			0.880

Higher numbers indicate a closer association between the item score and the factor score e.g. between “private practice” and “Money & Status” (items with loadings >0.6 are in bold). Negative signs indicate a high score on the item is associated with a low score on the factor.