The present study aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze research studies on the empowerment of medical students. In other words, it sought to identify the factors influencing the empowerment of medical students based on prior quantitative research and to determine the extent of these effects.
Method: This study employed the meta-analysis method, as one of the systematic research review approaches, to address the main research question. To implement the meta-analysis, all valid scientific studies at the national level from 2020 to 2023 and at the international level from 2019 to 2024 were selected as the research population. After reviewing all available documents, 16 studies were ultimately deemed suitable for the meta-analysis. The data obtained from these documents were analyzed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (CMA2).
Findings: The findings were presented in two sections: descriptive results and results derived from the meta-analysis. The results of the combined effect size analysis indicated that the variables of socioeconomic status and social participation had medium impacts on the empowerment of medical students, with combined effect sizes of 0.427 and 0.441, respectively.
Conclusion: Based on the study’s findings, social participation, e-learning, and socioeconomic status were identified as the most significant factors in empowering medical students.