Integration of behavioral, social and human sciences into Turkish undergraduate medical curricula: A descriptive curriculum document analysis

OBJECTIVE:The objective of the study was to examine the representation of the Behavioral, Social and Human Sciences (BSSH) topics defined in the National Core Curriculum 2020 (NCC-2020) within undergraduate medical curricula in Turkiye, evaluate the documented educational characteristics of their integration, and explore differences according to selected institutional characteristics.METHODS: Medical faculties providing undergraduate medical education during the 2019-2020 academic year were identified through the official website of the Council of Higher Education.Publicly available undergraduate curriculum documents from 56 medical faculties were retrieved from institutional websites.The NCC-2020 BSSH framework consisted of 35 main categories and 217 subcategories (252 items), which were consolidated into 208 BSSH topics after removing duplicate or conceptually overlapping items.The presence of these topics in course titles was examined.Documented teaching methods, assessment methods, and responsible academic departments were also analyzed.Differences in BSSH representation were examined according to accreditation status, institutional type, geographical region, and the year in which faculties admitted their first students. RESULTS:The documented representation of BSSH topics in undergraduate medical curricula was limited and uneven.Only 14 of the 208 BSSH topics were represented in at least 80% of curricula, whereas 130 topics (62.5%) appeared in fewer than 20% of faculties.Accredited medical faculties incorporated significantly more BSSH topics into their curricula than non-accredited faculties (p<0.05).Lecture-based teaching and written examinations predominated in the curriculum documents, while learner-centered teaching methods, performance-based assessment approaches, and interdisciplinary participation from the social sciences and humanities were documented only rarely.No significant differences were found according to institutional type or the year in which faculties admitted their first students, whereas significant regional differences were observed. CONCLUSION:The documented integration of BSSH into undergraduate medical curricula in Turkiye remains limited and uneven.Although a common curricular core centered on preventive medicine, public health, and routine professional practice was consistently represented, broader humanistic, structural, and systems-oriented dimensions of BSSH were substantially less visible.