Biological and cognitive factors that influence the academic performance of medical students in the subject of Physiology I

Abstract

The study aims to determine the biological and cognitive factors that influence the academic performance of medical students in the subject of Physiology I at UNAN-Managua, 2020.

Methodology: The study is descriptive, observational, cross-sectional, retrospective, and quantitative in approach. The universe was made up of 142 students and the sample was 105 active students, who took the subject of Physiology I. The sampling was simple random probabilistic. The ethical aspects were based on the Declaration of Helsinki. The source of information was primary, and the information was processed in SPSS 23.

Results: The main factors influencing academic performance were evaluation overload, insufficient time for self-study, poor organization of study time, distracting agents and inappropriate study techniques. Students present anxiety in 80.1%. When evaluating students with the CEE test, it was found that 53.3% of students have above-average stress and 17.1% show high stress. On the other hand, the SISCO questionnaire showed that 98.1% of students have some degree of stress (56.2% moderate stress). The degree of excessive daytime sleepiness was evident in 79.0% of students. The average number of hours that students sleep is 5.4 hours. The learning style is reflective.

Keywords: Medicine, Drowsiness, Stress, learning, Academic performance.