Economic analysis of students' preferences for specialty choice: a case study on dentistry

Abstract

Introduction: Dental specialties play an important role in promoting oral health. This study investigated the factors influencing general dentistry students’ choice of specialty fields.Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey. The study population included dentistry students affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Khorasgan University in 2021. A total of 301 students participated and completed the questionnaire developed based on the framework of discrete choice studies. The factors were extracted through literature review and qualitative interviews with professors and residents of dental specialties. Choice sets included two alternatives and data analysis was performed using conditional logit regression in Stata version 14.Results: The probability of choosing a dental specialty increased for those fields with high prestige and income (Coefficient= 0.98), those with a less difficult residency period (Coefficient= 0.20), and those with shorter residency duration (Coefficient= -0.12). Specialties associated with low (Coefficient= 0.43) or average (Coefficient= 0.41) levels of job stress were also more likely to be chosen. Higher tuition fees for residency programs reduced the probability of choosing a specialty (Coefficient= 0.24). Interest in the specialty increased the probability of choice (Coefficient= 0.83).Conclusion: General dentistry students consider various financial and non-financial factors when selecting a dental specialty. To optimize the allocation of talents across dental specialties, policymakers should consider financial and non-financial incentives. Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s); Published by Iran University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source.