Response to: Motivational factors influencing student intentions to practise in underserved areas.

We read 'Motivational factors influencing student intentions to practise in underserved areas' by Abbiati et al.(1) with great interest. It is heartening to see a study exploring the reasons why medical students may not practise in areas with underfilled job vacancies. However, we fundamentally disagree with some of the arguments raised by the study. We believe that the study's listed motivational factors are more relevant for specialty choice rather than intention to work in underserved areas (UAs). For example, the authors conclude that students for whom intellectual challenge is a profile driver, are less likely to want to practise in UAs.