Correlation Between Attendance and Performance of Undergraduate Medical Students in Otorhinolaryngology: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Introduction: Technology has changed the dynamics of teaching and learning any subject. More emphasis is being laid on e-learning and self-directed learning. In this scenario, there is a rising doubt whether the physical attendance of students in theory lectures and clinical postings is at all important. Various studies have been conducted in different subjects to find a relation between outcome and attendance. However, we could not find any study done in Otorhinolaryngology. Hence, this study was conducted with the aim to know the correlation between attendance and performance for Otorhinolaryngology undergraduate students.

Methodology: This is a retrospective cohort study carried out in the Otorhinolaryngology Department of a tertiary care teaching hospital of western Gujarat. The attendance (theory and clinics, biometrically fetched), internal theory examination marks (out of 40), and internal practical examination marks (out of 40) of a single batch students were obtained from the academic records and analyzed using Microsoft Excel sheet.

Results: Out of 158 students, data of 151 students was analyzed in this study (7 students were absent on the day of examination). 76 students were boys and 75 girls. The combined (theory and clinics) average attendance of girls was 88.37%, as compared to 78.37% for boys (p < 0.0001). Out of 80 (40 for theory and 40 for clinics), girls got an average of 37.12 marks as compared to 30.89 for boys (p < 0.0001). There was a positive and significant correlation between marks obtained and attendance percentage for total students as well as for boys and girls separately.

Conclusion: There is a positive and significant correlation between attendance percentage and marks obtained, both for theory and clinics, for Otorhinolaryngology undergraduate medical students.