Changes in first year medical students’ attitudes and perceptions toward cultural diversity: a pilot study in Korea

Abstract

Purpose Cultural diversity (CD) education in undergraduate medical training has gained increasing attention as patient populations become more diverse. This pilot study examined preliminary changes in first-year medical students’ attitudes and perceptions toward CD following a single structured session informed by Dogra’s (2005) perspective on CD education at a Korean medical school. Methods A single-group pre–post design was employed with 85 first-year medical students during the 2023–2024 academic year. A 14-item questionnaire, drawn from Panthi and his colleagues and reclassified by the authors into four domains (Domain 1: Q1–Q3; Domain 2: Q4–Q6; Domain 3: Q7–Q9; Domain 4: Q10–Q14), organized with reference to Dogra’s (2005) distinction between cultural expertise and cultural sensibility, was administered immediately before and after a 3-hour structured session. Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale, with Bonferroni correction applied for item-level comparisons (adjusted p<0.004). Results A total of 51 of 85 students (60.0%) completed both surveys and were included in the analysis. The total attitude score increased significantly from 51.77±5.47 to 57.27±6.14 (Cohen’s d=0.92). Significant improvements were observed in nine items (Q1, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q10–Q14). Items related to empathy and openness (Q2), bias self-awareness (Q6), and acculturative attitudes (Q7–Q9) did not reach corrected significance. Conclusion Attitudinal responsiveness varied across domains. Value-congruent and clinically oriented attitudes shifted through direct instruction, acculturative attitudes showed only surface-level trends, and bias self-awareness showed no change.