Performance of Reading Comprehension in First-Year Students of Higher Education in Health

Introduction: In recent years, it has been evidenced in the university environment that students have difficulties in reading comprehension of different types of texts.Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the performance of reading comprehension in 1st year health education students in southern Chile. Method: The research has a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional and descriptive design approach with a non-probabilistic convenience sampling obtaining a total of 88 students from the careers of Dentistry, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy. The LECTUM 7 instrument was applied to assess reading comprehension. The performance of reading comprehension and according to sociodemographic covariates is described. Results: The results reveal that 65% of the students present an average performance. Performance was better in explicit reading comprehension than implicit reading comprehension and better in textual comprehension than pragmatics and criticism. Finally, significant differences are evident according to sex and type of educational establishment and a greater trend in the averages by career and age. Conclusions: These findings emphasize the importance of enhancing implicit, pragmatic, and critical reading comprehension in university health students.