A Cross-Sectional Study of the Variability in Medical Students’ Concept of Disease: Prototype Revisited

The concept of disease is central to medicine yet remains philosophically contested. While most accounts focus on defining disease through necessary properties, little attention has been paid to how different groups conceptualise it. This cross-sectional study investigated differences in the conceptualisation of disease among 115 medical students in early (first–second year) and late (fifth–sixth year) stages of education at the Faculty of Medicine in Osijek, Croatia. Using a survey based on ICD-10 entities, participants rated whether listed conditions are diseases. Senior students were significantly more likely to classify entities as diseases. Gender and having a healthcare professional in the family also influenced ratings. High agreement clustered around infectious diseases and neoplasms, whereas poisonings and certain borderline conditions showed lower consensus. The pattern of responses suggests that the concept of disease is structured prototypically.