Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development

Class attendance has long been subject of debate while measuring performance in examination so we need to identify the problems why Medical students don't want to attend lectures. Previous studies had stated controversial argument regarding this relationship. Students with good lecture attendance show higher scores in exams, whereas those with poor lecture attendance are at risk for poor performance, ¹ whereas studies by Riggs and Blanco² showed a negative correlation. This study is an effort to find out the relationship of attendance and academic performance of medical students and also identify different factors responsible for low attendance in didactic lectures.

“To find the relationship between academic performance and lecture's attendance and the factors responsible for low attendance of medical students”

In this study total 96 students of final professional Part-1 (Ophthalmology) were enrolled. 9 students had been excluded from study (4 students who had not attended any class and 5 students who could not appear in one or both the semester). Examination scores of remaining 87 Students were recorded from assessments of both the semester held during this Professional & grouped into two categories-group 1 with >60% & group 2 with ≤60% of examination score. Attendance at the end of this session was recorded and categorized into four groups according to percentage of attendance of these students, group A-<60%, group B-60-74%, group C-75-90% and group D->90%. Questionnaire was handed over to 48 students who have <75% of class attendance and asked them to fill it to find out the different reasons of absenteeism from the lectures.

The majority of distinction grades (>60%) were seen in students (25/39 students; 64.10%) with attendance rates ≥75% and the majority of lower grades (≤60%) occurred in students (43/48 students; 89.58%) with attendance rates <75%. The most common reasons had given by the students for missing lectures were sickness (64.58%), online availability of Course material (62.50%), Teachers didn't allow late entry in the class (60.41%).

This study shows direct impact of lecture's attendance on academic performance in medical students of final professional part 1 (Ophthalmology). The most common reasons given by the students for missing lectures were sickness, online availability of Course material, Teachers did'nt allow late entry in the class.