What factors affect the academic performance of undergraduate medical students? The impact of attendance and gender

Class attendance has been proven to be the main determinant of student performance; students with high attendance achieve higher academic performance. This study aimed to evaluate attendance among final-year medical students, assess its relationship with their academic performance, and examine the effect of gender on this relationship. The research methodology employed census sampling and included 248 female and 30 male medical students who had completed their final year end-of-rotation examinations over two academic years. Data about their gender, attendance and academic performance in the end-of-rotation examinations were retrieved manually by authors and registered in an Excel spreadsheet. A comparison between gender groups was performed using an independent-sample t-test. Pearson's correlation was used to study the correlation between attendance and continuous assessment and the theory and clinical scores of students in the end-of-rotation examinations. Findings revealed that attendance was better among females than males; however, the difference was insignificant. Male students performed better than female students in all exam components, with a significant difference in the theory component. The relationship between students' attendance and performance in the end-of-rotation exam revealed a statistically significant increase in student scores with attendance. The results highlight the importance of student attendance for undergraduate medical students’ performance regardless of gender. Therefore, we recommend that undergraduate medical students attend all activities to improve their understanding and academic performance.