Factors associated with academic performance in undergraduate health sciences students enrolled in the human anatomy course

Abstract

Introduction: Human Anatomy is a basic subject that poses a great academic challenge for students who are admitted to health sciences undergraduate degree programs. Objective: To know the socio-academic profile of first-year students of several health sciences undergraduate degree programs and to assess the association between, on the one hand, academic performance during secondary education, study habits and performance in the university admission test of sciences, and, on the other, academic performance in the human anatomy subject. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional correlational study conducted in 2018. The study population consisted of 306 first-year students enrolled in 7 health sciences undergraduate programs offered by the Faculty of Medical Sciences of a public university in Santiago de Chile, Chile. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the correlation between the variables of interest. Also, a multiple linear regression analysis was performed to establish the factors significantly associated with the final grade obtained in the subject. A level of significance of p<0.05 was considered. Results: Participants’ average age was 19.8 years, 98.6% were single and 65.3% were women. A significant association was observed between the final grade of the subject and the score obtained in the university admission test (p=0.000) and the average grade point average in high school (p=0.001); however, this association was not significant with the variables considered as study habits. Conclusion: Academic performance in the human anatomy subject was associated with the students' prior knowledge, but not with their study habits. Thus, educational interventions in this university should focus more on leveling students' knowledge, rather than on optimizing their study habits.