Ratings of Specialties' Lifestyles by Fourth-Year US Medical Students With a Military Service Obligation

US medical students have been placing increased importance on lifestyle when choosing their specialty. A 2003 study showed that lifestyle explained 55% of the changing trends in specialty choice of US allopathic medical students from 1992–2002.1 It seems intuitive that medical students’ description of which specialties have a favorable lifestyle would be well known. However, this has only been described once using scientific methods.2 That study, conducted by Newton et al, included more than 1,000 students from two medical schools who were to rate the importance of lifestyle in their specialty choice.2 Findings indicated that lifestyle played a significant role in medical students’ decisions to specialize in fields such as radiology, physical medicine/rehabilitation, emergency medicine, ophthalmology, anesthesia, urology, and dermatology, the specialties rated the most lifestyle friendly. Those students who valued lifestyle highly