Relationship between physical activity, academic achievement, gender, and learning styles in students of a Latin American Dental School: A cross-sectional study

Learning Styles in undergraduate dentistry students: A systematic review

Objective

To evaluate the prevalence of Learning Styles (LS) among undergraduate dentistry students (UDS).

Method

Cochrane manual's methodology and PRISMA statement were used. Four databases were searched, and the studies were selected based on eligibility criteria. The search strategy was Learning Style AND Dentistry and Learning Style AND dental student.

Results

A total of 30 articles were included, 17 of which used the Visual, Aural, Read-write and Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire, 8 the Kolb LS Inventory (LSI), 3 the Honey-Alonso questionnaire (CHAEA) and 3 the Felder and Solomon LS index (ILS). The studies that allowed us to extract all the necessary data to calculate the global percentages for each instrument were grouped together. For VARK, LSI, CHAEA and ILS the highest number and percentage of learning styles were 1089 (50.4 %) multimodal, 518 (32.7 %) divergent, 239 (46.7 %) reflectors and 107 (64.8 %) active, 130 (78.8 %) sensitive, 138 (83.6 %) visual and 106 (64.3 %) sequential, respectively.

Conclusions

There is a tendency for multimodal, divergent and reflective LS to increase among clinical students, unlike initial and preclinical dentistry students, who lean towards unimodal, convergent and theoretical LS. This dynamism in LS could be influenced by the different methodologies strategies used in the preclinical and clinical courses.

Correlation between studying strategies, personal and psychological factors with academic achievement and intelligence in health sciences university students: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION

To date, there are no sufficient studies aimed to determine a correlation between personal, academic, and psychological variables with academic achievement, measured with the grade point average (GPA) and intelligence in university students according to each sex.

STUDY AIM

To determine the correlation between studying strategies, personal and psychological factors with GPA and intelligence in a sample of health sciences university students.

METHODS

Health Sciences university students, were invited to participate, those who accepted were cited in a computer room where they signed an informed consent and filled an electronic questionnaire with sociodemographic, behavioral, psychological variables and studying strategies (from the MLSQ instrument) afterwards they performed a verbal and non-verbal intelligence test (Shipley-2).

RESULTS

A total of 439 students were included, from which 297 (67.7%) were women. The mean of age was 20.34 ± 2.61 years old. We found that no differences in GPA where observed between sexes. We detected a higher correlation between combined intelligence and GPA in women than in men. In addition, most studying strategies showed a higher correlation with GPA than intelligence scores in men´s sample. All these findings coincide with the fact that preparatory GPA was the most correlated variable with university GPA in both sexes. Finally, women showed higher levels of the sum of diseases, somatization, anxiety, depression and academic stress than men, and all these variables showed low significant correlations with the combined intelligence score only in women´s sample.

CONCLUSION

Verbal and non-verbal intelligence scores show a lower association to GPA in men than in women, while studying strategies showed a higher association with GPA in men than in women.

Associations between total physical activity levels and academic performance in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Physical activity has been associated with positive health-related outcomes. Physical inactivity, conversely, has been associated with several negative health outcomes. One topic that has been consistently examined is the relationship between physical activity and academic performance in children; however, studies that involve university-level students have not been aggregated to date. It is therefore the aim of this systematic review to examine the relationship between physical activity and academic performance in university-level students. This systematic review was conducted in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and included any study published until September 2023 that examined associations between physical activity and any measure of academic performance. SPORTDiscus, ERIC, the British Education Index, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and PubMed were searched. A random effects meta-analysis was also undertaken, and risk bias was assessed using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale. After screening, 36 studies were included, with six studies being included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found a significant association between physical activity (high versus low) and academic performance (high versus low performers) (odds ratio = 3.04; 95% CI = 1.84-5.02; P ≤ 0.001; I2 = 49.62). These results, however, were deemed to be of low credibility. The narrative analysis yielded mixed results, with 50% of studies reporting positive associations and the remaining studies reporting no significant associations. This trend did not differ depending on the subjective or objective measurement of physical activity. Although this review found meta-analytic significant associations between physical activity and academic performance, these results should be treated with caution, as the remaining studies yielded mixed results. Future studies should aim to focus on objective measurements of physical activity where possible to further explore this potential relationship.

Exploring the effects of health behaviors and mental health on students' academic achievement: a cross-sectional study on lebanese university students

BACKGROUND

High academic achievement, an important determinant of future success, is known to be influenced by many factors including dietary behavior, lifestyle and mental health, among others. The objectives of the current study were to explore university students' nutritive habits, daily lifestyle, and mental status, and to scrutinize the associations between these factors and students' academic achievement.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among students of a private Lebanese university, using an electronic survey. Diet, eating habits, physical activity, sleep, and smoking were evaluated, and mental health was assessed using a validated Arabic version of the combined Depression, Anxiety, Stress Score (DASS-8). Academic achievement was measured using the Subjective Academic Achievement Scale (SAAS).

RESULTS

A total of 1677 students participated in the questionnaire. The results of a linear regression taking the SAAS score as the dependent variable, showed that students who have a non-scientific versus scientific major (Beta = 0.53), and having breakfast ≥ 4 days per week compared to less than 2 days (Beta = 0.28) were significantly associated with higher SAAS scores. More psychological distress (Beta = - 0.06) and a higher number of days of eating out (Beta = - 0.07) were significantly associated with lower SAAS scores.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first investigation on a Lebanese university students' academic success in relation to lifestyle and mental profiles. Better academic achievement was demonstrated by students having healthier dietary and lifestyle habits, as well as less distressing mental status. Such results, in light of the compounded and unprecedented crises with which Lebanon has been assailed, suggest the need to focus on promoting healthy habits among students in higher education as a possible driver of better academic success.