Determinants of academic performance in medical students: evidence from a medical school in south-east Nigeria

Figures & data

Table 1 Summary of measure used in the categorization of surveyed medical students

Variables	Measures
Categorization of the sociodemographic characteristics of medical students
Age	<25 years, ≥25 years
Gender	Male, female
Marital status	Married, single
Ethnicity	Igbo, others
Religion	Christianity, others
Family size	<5, 6–7, >7
Family problems	Yes, no
Financial dependents	Yes, no
Monthly allowance in naira^a	≤10,000, 10,000–20,000, 21,000–40,000, >40,000
Mode of admission	UME, inter-dept, inter-uni, direct entry
Number of UME sitting	1, 2, 3, >3
Medical school entry	Merit-based, quota-based
Categorization of the curricular and extracurricular activities in medical school
Membership of school groups	None, 1, 2, ≥3
Number of non-academic activities per week	None, 1, 2, ≥3
Frequency of family visit	Weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or less
Main extracurricular activity	Sport, social, politics, others
Effect of extracurricular on academic performance	Enhance, diminish, no effect, not sure
Preferred method of teaching	Oral and note taking, power-point, others
Number of study hour per day	<4 hrs, ≥4 hrs
Number of study hour on weekends	<5 hrs, 5–8 hrs, >8 hrs
Number of hours on social media/networking	<2 hrs, ≥2 hrs
Number of hours of sleep per day	<6 hrs, 6–8 hrs, >8 hrs
Preparation prior to major examinations	≤1 month, >1 month
Dimensions measuring the academic performances of medical students
Number of sitting to pass 2nd MBBS Exam	1, ≥2
Number of sitting to pass 3rd MBBS Exam	1, ≥2
Number of repeated examinations till date	None, 1, 2, ≥3
Number of distinctions	None, 1, ≥2
Academic performance (Cronbach ɑ=0.74)	Good, poor

Note: ^aOne US dollar = 362 nigerian naira (http://www.xe.com).

Abbreviations: UME, University Matriculation Exam; inter-dept, inter-departmental; inter-uni, inter-university.

Table 2 Sociodemographic characteristics of medical students surveyed in the study

Characteristics	Variables	Number	Percentage
Respondents age	<25 years	99	68.3
(n=145)	≥25 years	46	31.7
Respondents gender	Male	79	54.5
(n=145)	Female	66	45.5
Marital status	Married	17	11.7
(n=145)	Single	128	88.3
Respondents ethnicity	Igbo	140	96.6
(n=145)	Others	5	3.4
Respondents religion	Christianity	143	98.6
(n=145)	Others	2	1.4
Family size	<5	48	33.5
(n=143)	5–7	65	45.5
	>7	30	21.0
Major family problem in the	Yes	50	36.5
course of medical school (n=143)	No	87	65.5
Monthly allowance	<10,000	27	19.1
(n=141)	10,000–20,000	53	37.6
	21,000–40,000	37	26.2
	>40,000	24	17.0
Financial dependents(s)	Yes	21	14.6
(n=144)	No	123	85.4
Mode of admission into medical	UME	100	69.0
school (n=145)	Inter-dept transfer	8	5.5
	Inter-univ transfer	25	17.2
	Direct entry	12	8.3
Entry into medical school	Merit-based	89	61.4
(n=145)	Quota-based	11	7.9
	Not applicable	45	30.7

Abbreviation: UME, University Matriculation Examination.

Table 3 Tabulation of the curricular-related and extracurricular activities of surveyed medical students

Curricular-related activities	Frequency N (%)	Extra-curricular activities	Frequency N (%)
Preferred teaching method	N=145	Time spent online on social networking	N=140
Oral with note-taking	12 (8)	< 2 hours per day	98 (70)
Power-point	120 (83)	≥ 2 hours per day	42 (30)
Others	13 (9)
		Sleep hours per day	N=144
Study hours per day	N=144	< 6	52 (36)
<4	83 (58)	6-8	82 (57)
≥4	61 (42)	> 8	10 (7)
Study hours per weekends	N=143	Membership of campus groups	N=145
<5	50 (35)	None	34 (23)
5-8	63 (44)	1	76 (52)
>8	30 (21)	2	24 (17)
		≥ 3	11 (8)
Examination preparation period	N=142
≤1 month	44 (31)	Number of activities attended per week	N=145
>1 month	98 (69)	None	50 (34)
		1 per week	60 (41)
Number of sitting for 2^nd MBBS exam	n=143	2 per week	26 (18)
Once	114 (80)	>3 per week	9 (7)
Twice or more	29 (20)
		Frequency of family visit	N=145
Number of sitting for 3^rd MBBS exam	N=139	Weekly basis or less	42 (29)
Once	107 (77)	Monthly basis	22 (15)
Twice or more	32 (23)	Bimonthly basis	22 (15)
		Quarterly basis or less	59 (41)
Number of distinctions	N=144
None	128 (89)	Main extra-curricular activity	N=118
1	10 (7)	Sports (indoor and/or outdoor)	61 (52)
≥2	6 (4)	Visiting or social gatherings	41 (34)
		Politics	9 (8)
Number of resits examinations	N=144	Others	7 (6)
None	73 (51)
1	29 (20)	Effect of extra-curricular activities	N=112
2	35 (24)	Improves academic performance	46 (42)
≥3	7 (5)	Reduces academic performance	5 (4)
		No effect on academic performance	43 (38)
		Not sure	18 (16)

Table 4 Determinants of academic performance in surveyed medical students

Parameter	Variables	Academic performances n (%)		P	Correlation coefficient (Rs)	P
		Good	Poor
Respondents age	≤25	50 (64)	53 (76)	0.069	−0.151	0.071
(N=143)	>25	28 (36)	17 (24)
Respondents gender	Male	45 (62)	32 (42)	0.050*	0.160	0.057
(N=143)	Female	28 (38)	38 (58)
Family size	<5	22 (31)	25 (36)	0.313	−0.111	0.208
(N=141)	5–7	31 (43)	33 (48)
	>7	19 (26)	11 (16)
Religion	Christianity	72 (99)	69 (99)	0.976	0.002	0.956
(N=140)	Others	1 (1)	1 (1)
Ethnicity	Igbo	72 (99)	66 (94)	0.157	0.118	0.160
(N=143)	Others	1 (1)	4 (6)
Membership of campus groups	None	24 (33)	10 (14)	0.018*	0.052	0.054
(N=143)	1	30 (41)	46 (66)
	2	12 (16)	10 (14)
	≥3	7 (10)	4 (6)
Number of activities attended	None	33 (45)	17 (24)	0.051	0.184	0.021
(N=143)	1 per week	24 (33)	34 (49)
	2 per week	13 (18)	13 (19)
	>3 per week	3 (4)	6 (9)
Marital status	Married	11 (15)	6 (9)	0.303	0.100	0.233
(N=143)	Single	62 (85)	64 (91)
Frequency of family visits	Weekly or less	16 (22)	25 (36)	0.027*	−0.225	0.007
(N=143)	Monthly	9 (12)	12 (16)
	Bimonthly	9 (12)	13 (19)
	Quarterly or less	39 (54)	20 (29)
Major family problem(s)	Yes	20 (29)	28 (42)	0.133	−0.129	0.135
(N=135)	No	48 (71)	39 (58)
Monthly allowance	<10,000	9 (13)	18 (27)	0.010*	−0.281	0.001
(N=140)	10,000–20,000	23 (44)	30 (44)
	21,000–40,000	23 (21)	14 (21)
	>40,000	17 (27)	6 (9)
Financial dependents(s)	Yes	20 (12)	12 (17)	0.396	−0.071	0.399
(N=142)	No	48 (88)	57 (83)
Mode of admission	UME	39 (5)	59 (84)	0.001*	−0.310	0.001
(N=143)	Direct entry	11 (15)	1 (2)
	Others	23 (32)	10 (14)
Entry method (UME)	Merit-based	40 (89)	49 (89)	0.974	−0.003	0.975
(N=100)	Quota-based	5 (11)	6 (11)
Study hours per day	<4	45 (62)	37 (54)	0.334	0.081	0.963
(N=142)	≥4	28 (38)	32 (46)
Study hours per weekends	<5	29 (40)	21 (31)	0.362	0.117	0.167
(N=141)	5–8	32 (44)	30 (44)
	>8	12 (16)	17 (25)
Exams preparation period	≤1 month	17 (23)	25 (37)	0.070	−0.153	0.071
(N=140)	>1 month	56 (77)	42 (63)
Sleep hours per day	<6	21 (29)	29 (42)	0.232	−0.120	0.156
(N=142)	6–8	47 (64)	35 (51)
	>8	5 (7)	5 (7)
Time spent online on social	<2 hrs/day	57 (79)	40 (61)	0.017*	0.203	0.016
networking (N=138)	≥2 hrs/day	15 (21)	26 (39)

Note: *Statistically significant.

Abbreviation: UME, University Matriculation Examination.

Table 5 Binary logistic regression analysis of significant parameter and student’s academic performance

Parameter	Variables	Crude OR (95% CI)	P-value	Adjusted OR (95% CI)^a	P-value
Gender	Male	1	–	1	–
	Female	7.14 (1.81–28.2)	0.005*	6.66 (0.84–52.9)	0.073
Membership of campus groups	None	1	–	1	–
	1	0.78 (0.14–4.45)	0.783	0.61 (0.04–0.95)	0.046*
	2	0.19 (0.02–1.60)	0.125	0.03 (0.00–0.15)	0.004*
	≥3	0.28 (0.15–5.31)	0.398	0.04 (0.00–0.54)	0.028*
Monthly allowance	<10,000	1	–	1	–
	10,000–20,000	0.57 (0.13–2.55)	0.460	0.14 (0.02–1.39)	0.085
	21,000–40,000	0.06 (0.01–0.35)	0.002*	0.13 (0.01–0.27)	0.005*
	>40,000	0.09 (0.01–0.74)	0.025*	0.25 (0.01–11.3)	0.478
Mode of admission	UME	1	–	1	–
	Direct entry	0.03 (0.01–0.17)	0.001*	0.02 (0.01–0.05)	0.001*
	Others	0.19 (0.05–0.70)	0.013*	0.05 (0.01–0.14)	0.002*
Time on social media/networking	<2 hrs/day	1	–	1	–
	≥2 hrs/day	1.16 (0.32–4.20)	0.825	1.24 (0.20–7.90)	0.820
			–		–
Frequency of family visits	Weekly or less	4.34 (1.08–17.5)	0.038*	3.76 (2.91–48.5)	0.005*
	Monthly	0.19 (0.03–1.28)	0.090	0.58 (0.17–1.99)	0.762
	Bimonthly	4.06 (0.87–19.1)	0.074	1.89 (0.65–5.56)	0.061
	Quarterly or less	1	–	1	–

Notes: ^aAdjusted for age, type of primary and secondary school attended, study hours per day, family problems, financial dependents, family size, religion, and ethnicity. *Statistically significant.