O Teste de Progresso é um fator preditivo de desempenho no curso de Medicina? Estudo retrospectivo num curso de Medicina no Brasil, 2010-2016

Abstract

Introduction: admission to a medical course is the beginning of a long-term full-time training process. It is a great investment of time and money for the student and his family. The literature reports several predictive factors of performance in medical courses, such as previous academic performance; performance in admission process; academic performance in the early years of the course; psychological, behavioral, demographic, social and economic factors. The identification of factors that predict poor performance, especially early in the course, may support the creation of programs that uphold these students. Objective: to identify predictive factors of performance among medical students. Methods: this is a retrospective observational study among students from UNIFENAS-BH medical course. All students admitted by traditional selection process or PROUNI in 2010 and 2011 and with available data in academic control system were included. The main outcome was graduating in medical course 12 semesters after admission. The following variables were analyzed: gender, age, marital status, admission process type, type of high school, entrance semester, admission exam grade, time of high school completion, progressing test grade, grade of 1st semester disciplines and global performance during 1st semester (average of disciplines grades). Descriptive analysis was performed through frequency distribution for categorical variables and average and standard deviation for continuous variables. The x2 test was used to compare the categorical variables and the Student's t test for the continuous variables. Variables with p≤0.20 were analyzed in a logistic regression analysis. The level of significance was 0.05. Results: 312 students were admitted during the study period, but 10 were eliminated due to lack of information. There was no statistically significant difference between graduation delay and the variables analyzed, except for the admission exam grade, which was lower in the group that delayed graduation (padjusted=0,012). Among the 270 students approved in the 1st period, there was a statistically significant relation between low academic performance in the 1st semester measured by global performance and graduation delay (padjusted<0,001). Conclusion: there was no association between progressing test grade and socio-demographic characteristics with graduation delay. The lower admission exam grade and poor academic performance in the 1st semester of the course indicated a greater risk of graduation delay.