Purpose: To investigate the current status of regional disparity of surgical residency training between urban and regional hospitals. Methods: Based on a nationwide online questionnaire survey for newly certified surgical trainees, the responding residents were divided into two groups according to the size of the city where they had trained: an urban city (>1 million, UC group) versus a regional city (<1 million, RC group). These groups were compared regarding surgical education and work environment. Results: The UC group (n = 317, 42%) included surgeons with more post-graduate years, older age, females, and full-time working partners compared to the RC group (n = 439, 58%). More residents in the UC group were from urban areas, while the RC group had more residents from regional areas. No differences were observed in the number of experienced surgeries, published papers, opportunities for off-the-job training, or satisfaction with the surgical residency training program. Except for a higher income in the RC group, no differences were observed for other factors regarding the work environment. Conclusions: There was little regional disparity regarding the impressions of surgical residency training between urban and regional cities including surgical education and work environment.

T Konishi received grants from Kanzawa Medical Research Foundation, the Japan Kampo Medicines Manufacturers Association, and Pfizer Co. Ltd. outside the submitted work. All other authors have no actual or potential conflict of interest to declare.

This study did not receive any funding

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This research proposal was approved by the research ethics review committee of the Japan Surgical Society (JSS) (JSS2023-1).

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors