Relationship Between Smoking and the Academic Performance of Medical Students / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

A survey of the relationship between smoking and the academic performance of 5th-year students at Kawasaki Medical School was carried out over a 2-year period (1996 and 1997). Students were asked about their smoking habits when they visited our ward to see patients. To assess their academic performance, students were divided into two groups; students who were promoted to the 5th-year without failures (straight-promotion group) and students who had repeated the same year at least once (repeater group). Among male students, smoking rates in the straight-promotion group were 48.9 % in 1996 and 39.1% in 1997, whereas those in the repeater group were 80.6% and 65.4%. Among female students, smoking rates in the straight-promotion group were 8.7% in 1996 and 9.1% in 1997, whereas those in the repeater group were 25.0% and 37.5%. The smoking rate among male students was significantly higher in the repeater group than in the straight-promotion group, whereas there was no statistical difference between the two groups among female students. Our results suggest that smoking and poor academic performance are related. More aggressive antismoking education is needed to reduce the high smoking rate among male medical students in Japan.