Are medical school preclinical tests biased for sex and race? A differential item functioning analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A common practice in assessment development, fundamental for fairness and consequently the validity of test score interpretations and uses, is to ascertain whether test items function equally across test-taker groups. Accordingly, we conducted differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, a psychometric procedure for detecting potential item bias, for three preclinical medical school foundational courses based on students' sex and race.

Methods

The sample included 520, 519, and 344 medical students for anatomy, histology, and physiology, respectively, collected from 2018 to 2020. To conduct DIF analysis, we used the Wald test based on the two-parameter logistic model as utilized in the IRTPRO software.

Results

The three assessments had as many as one-fifth

SUBMITTER: Dale ED 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11780802 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature