Predictors of self-reported academic performance among undergraduate medical students of Hawassa University, Ethiopia

Figures & data

Table 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of undergraduate medical students at College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, November 2012

Characteristic	Frequency (n)	Percentage
Sex
Male	473	79.9
Female	119	20.1
Age, years	22.16 (mean)	1.848 (SD)
15–19	53	9.0
20–24	485	81.9
≥25	54	9.1
Religion
Orthodox Christian	356	60.1
Protestant Christian	123	20.8
Muslim	79	13.3
Other*	34	5.7
Ethnicity
Amhara	236	39.9
Oromo	168	28.4
Tigre	44	7.4
Gurage	37	6.2
Other**	107	18.1
Original background
Urban	362	61.1
Rural	230	38.9
Medical education status
Preclinical I	115	19.4
Preclinical II	101	17.1
Clinical I	144	24.3
Clinical II	149	25.2
Internship	83	14.0
Maternal educational level
No formal education	237	40.0
Primary school (1–8)	140	23.6
Secondary school (9–12)	79	13.3
College and above	136	23.0
Paternal educational level
No formal education	157	26.5
Primary school (1–8)	144	24.3
Secondary school (9–12)	74	12.5
College and above	217	36.7
Monthly allowance, USD	19.8 (mean)	14.7 (SD)
<10	167	28.2
10–25	329	55.6
25–50	76	12.8
>50	20	3.4

Notes:

* Catholic;

** Sidama.

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Table 2 Former high school background and behavioral characteristics of undergraduate medical students at College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, November 2012

Characteristic	Frequency (n)	Percentage
Completed high school in
Government school	461	77.9
Private school	131	22.1
University entrance examination result (%)	72.0 (mean)	3.97 (SD)
60–69.9	163	27.5
70–79.9	419	70.8
≥80	10	1.7
Was medicine their first choice?
Yes	537	90.7
No	55	9.3
Ever use of substances before university
Yes	33	5.6
No	559	94.4
Type of substance ever use before university (n=33)
Khat alone	18	3.0
Alcohol and khat	11	1.9
Cigarettes, alcohol, and khat	4	0.68
Current substance use (n=592)
Yes	143	24.2
No	449	75.8
Type of currently used substances (n=143)
Khat alone	110	18.6
Alcohol and khat	97	16.4
Cigarettes, alcohol, and khat	33	5.5
Substance use by academic year
Preclinical I	10	8.7
Preclinical II	26	25.7
Clinical I	42	29.2
Clinical II	34	22.8
Internship	31	37.3
Average daily duration of study, hours	7.9 (mean)	2.8 (SD)
<5	53	9.0
5–10	458	77.4
>10	81	13.7
Average daily duration of sleep, hours	6.96 (mean)	1.22 (SD)
<5	13	2.2
5–10	578	97.6
>10	1	0.2
Average daily duration of extracurricular activities, hours	3.2 (mean)	1.74 (SD)
<1	2	0.3
1–3	373	63.0
>3	217	36.7
Type of missed academic activities
Lecture	326	55.1
Seminar/tutorial	115	19.4
Bedside/round	33	5.5

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Table 3 Patterns of academic performance among undergraduate medical students at College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, November 2012

Characteristic	Frequency (n)	Percentage
Withdrawal history with any cause
Yes	26	4.4
No	566	95.6
University attendance, years
≤6	545	92.1
>6	47	7.9
GPA	Mean	SD
Premedicine	3.47	0.29
Preclinical I	2.99	0.42
Preclinical II	2.88	0.40
Clinical I	2.71	0.38
Clinical II	2.73	0.40
Current cumulative	3.08	0.38
Have you ever been delayed (repeated courses)
Yes	158	26.7
No	434	73.3
Academic year of delay (n=158)
Preclinical	90	56.9
Clinical	68	43.1
Have you ever had to re-sit an examination
Yes	37	6.2
No	555	93.8
Academic years of re-sit examination, n=37
Preclinical	34	91.2
Clinical	3	8.8
Academic performance, cumulative GPA
Good (≥3.0)	365	61.7
Low (<3.0)	227	38.3
Academic performance
Good (never delayed, had to re-sit, been warned)	416	70.3
Low (delayed, had to re-sit, been warned)	176	29.7

Abbreviations: GPA, grade point average; SD, standard deviation.

Table 4 Bivariate correlation between independent variables and academic performance among undergraduate medical students at College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, November 2012

Variables	Performance		Performance		Performance
	All students		Preclinical years		Clinical years
	r	P-value	r	P-value	r	P-value
Sex	−0.010	0.804	−0.076	0.148	0.010	0.877
Age	−0.469	0.000	−0.540	0.000	−0.023	0.72
Religion	−0.094	0.051	−0.026	0.618	−0.135	0.052
Ethnicity	−0.013	0.753	0.010	0.843	−0.055	0.401
Original background	−0.018	0.667	0.006	0.914	0.040	0.545
Paternal educational level	0.038	0.354	0.013	0.805	0.019	0.773
Maternal educational level	0.041	0.325	0.014	0.791	−0.018	0.790
Monthly allowance	0.006	0.877	−0.047	0.369	0.031	0.639
Type of preparatory school	0.003	0.941	−0.037	0.485	−0.007	0.918
Withdrawal history by any cause	0.094	0.022	0.064	0.227	0.138	0.036
University entrance examination result	0.356	0.000	0.390	0.000	0.240	0.000
Was medicine their first choice	−0.075	0.067	−0.040	0.452	−0.139	0.035
Substance use before university	0.035	0.389	0.005	0.922	−0.005	0.941
Current substance use	−0.219	0.000	−0.261	0.000	−0.118	0.072
Daily duration of study	0.053	0.202	0.094	0.075	−0.100	0.129
Daily amount of sleep	−0.044	0.280	−0.077	0.145	0.094	0.154
Daily time spent on extracurricular activities	0.006	0.888	−0.020	0.706	0.060	0.365
Missing lectures	0.111	0.007	0.168	0.001	0.038	0.561
Missing bedside/rounds	−0.398	0.000	−0.091	0.186	0.079	0.128
Missing seminars/tutorials	0.147	0.000	0.158	0.020	0.093	0.071

Table 5 Results of multiple linear regression analysis of academic performance among undergraduate medical students at College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, November 2012

	Performance			Performance			Performance
	All students*			Preclinical students**			Clinical students***
	Stand B	t static	P-value	Stand B	t static	P-value	Stand B	t static	P-value
Constant		7.88	0.000		3.51	0.001		4.713	0.000
Sex	−0.080	−2.112	0.055	−0.083	−1.359	0.76	−0.070	−1.250	0.212
Age	−0.389	−10.488	0.000	−0.347	−5.510	0.000	−0.148	−2.741	0.006
Original background	0.045	1.209	0.227	−0.036	−0.057	0.571	0.055	0.996	0.320
Monthly allowance	0.057	1.436	0.152	0.111	1.571	0.118	0.107	1.862	0.063
University entrance	0.271	7.665	0.000	0.283	4.792	0.000	0.268	5.331	0.000
examination result
Medicine as first choice	0.077	2.264	0.024	0.055	0.949	0.344	0.116	2.383	0.018
Substance use before	−0.070	−1.954	0.051	−0.122	−1.904	0.058	−0.063	−1.236	0.217
university
Current substance use	−0.204	−5.332	0.000	−0.330	−4.625	0.000	−0.194	−3.631	0.000
Religion	−0.067	−1.924	0.055	−0.163	−2.731	0.057	−0.043	−0.871	0.384
Missing seminars/tutorials	0.044	1.262	0.207	0.039	0.623	0.534	0.041	0.829	0.408

Notes:

* Adjusted R² =0.328, P=0.000;

** adjusted R² =0.301, P=0.000;

*** adjusted R² =0.147, P=0.000.

Table 6 Binary and multiple logistic regression analysis of academic performance based on CGPA average as a dichotomous variable, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, November 2012

Variables	Academic performance, CGPA		OR (95% CI)
	Good (≤3.0)	Low (<3.0)	Crude OR (95% CI)	P-value	Adjusted OR(95% CI)	P-value
Age (years)				0.000		0.000
≤20	107	10	1		1
21–25	252	213	9.044 (4.613–17.733)		0.275 (0.058–1.297)
>25	6	4	7.133 (1.722–29.556)		1.924 (0.484–7.652)
Religion				0.105		0.923
Orthodox	231	125	1
Muslim	50	29	0.685 (0.337–1.396)
Protestant	65	58	0.735 (0.325–1.663)
Other	19	15	1.130 (0.527–2.426)
Ethnicity				0.083		0.574
Amhara	158	78	1
Oromo	92	76	0.680 (0.425–1.088)
Tigre	31	13	1.138 (0.698–1.857)
Gurage	22	15	0.578 (0.272–1.227)
Other	62	45	0.939 (0.439–2.009)
Maternal education				0.075		0.515
No formal education	156	81	1
Primary school	77	63	0.983 (0.631–1.532)
High school	43	36	1.549 (0.953–2.518)
College and above	89	47	1.585 (0.900–2.794)
Withdrawal history				0.043		0.513
Yes	11	15	1
No	354	212	2.277 (1.027–5.050)
Medicine as first choice				0.046		0.05
Yes	338	199	1
No	27	28	1.761 (1.009–3.074)
Current substance use				0.000		0.003
Yes	69	74	1		1
No	296	153	2.075 (1.417–3.039)		1.945 (1.253–3.019)
Missing seminars/tutorials				0.003		0.055
Yes	57	58	1
No	307	169	1.848 (1.226–2.788)
University entrance result, %				0.000		0.000
60–65	11	14	1		1
66–70	64	92	3.494 (1.490–8.193)		3.053 (1.248–7.47)
71–75	150	70	3.946 (2.51–6.203)		3.809 (1.908–4.293)
>75	140	51	1.281 (0.835–1.966)		1.443 (0.908–2.293)

Abbreviations: CGPA, cumulative grade point average; CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio.