Associations between demographic factors and the academic trajectories of medical students in Japan

Abstract

BackgroundGroup-based trajectory modeling is a useful tool for categorizing students' academic trajectories and their determinants. Using insights gained from the analyses, we can identify students at risk for poor academic performance and monitor them to provide support. To date, studies investigating the associations between demographic factors and academic performance trajectories among medical students are scarce. The study objective was to examine the associations between demographic factors and academic performance trajectories in medical students using group-based trajectory modeling. MethodsParticipants included all medical students admitted to Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan in 2013 and 2014 (n = 202). Academic performance was evaluated by biannual grade point average (GPA) scores in preclinical years. We used group-based trajectory modeling to categorize students into GPA trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the association between the odds of being in a certain GPA trajectory group and demographic factors such as high school type, high school geographical area, admission test type, high school graduation year, whether the student was a biology major, and sex.

Factors affecting the academic performance of low-and high-performing dental students: evidence from Japan

“…Regarding basic demographic characteristics, the academic performance of female students was stronger than that of male students. This result is consistent with Nawa et al [12], who found that male dental students had a higher proportion of withdrawals or academic year repetitions than their female counterparts.…”

Identifying and supporting students at risk of failing the National Medical Licensure Examination in Japan using a predictive pass rate

“…It is unclear why medical students who belonged to a neighborhood HS have better chance of passing the NMLE, and we found no such study on the relationship between NMLE and the location of HS or hometown. Given previous study on academic performance [ 16 , 18 ], students from the neighborhood city/town might be able to receive various kinds of supports from their families physically, economically, and psychologically. Further investigations are required.…”

“…However, these studies did not confirm their results using predictors in a new group of students. Previous studies about medical students’ academic success reported academic performance associated with not only post admission variables such as previous academic performance [ 15 , 16 ] and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) [ 17 ], but also pre-admission variables such as gender [ 17 ], age at admission [ 16 ], hometown [ 16 , 18 ], type of high school (HS) [ 19 ], HS grade point average (GPA) [ 20 ], and entrance exam for medical schools [ 21 ].…”

The effects of attendance and high school GPA on student performance in first-year undergraduate courses

“…The literature illustrates that specific factors of age, gender, nationality, and high school significantly influence student performance and satisfaction in school or university (Green & Celkan, 2011;Nawa et al, 2020;Schreiber et al, 2017). Yousef (2019) conducted research focused on the academic and demographic factors impacting student academic performance.…”