Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Relation between stress, time management, and academic achievement in preclinical medical education: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Soleiman Ahmady
. Nasrin Khajeali 1
. Masomeh Kalantarion
. Farshad Sharifi 2
. Mehdi Yaseri 3

1 Deprtment of Medical Education, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran,

2 Elderly Health Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Identifying the learners’ problems is important. Besides, many factors are associated with academic
failure, among which time management and stress are more important than any others based
on evidence. By using a systematic review and meta‑analysis, this study aims to synthesize the
findings of studies about the correlation of time management and stress with academic failure
to suggest a more in‑depth insight into the effect of these two factors on academic failure. Four
databases were searched from the inception of January 2018. Publication bias was evaluated visually
using funnel plots and sized up by Egger’s test. Ninety‑four articles were found to be qualified for
inclusion after full‑text review and additional manual reference made. Of these, 8 were studies of
educational interventions that were reviewed in this paper. Regarding the relation of stress and
academic performance, the Funnel plot (results not shown) and Egger’s test showed no publication
bias in the studies (P = 0.719). Based on this result, the estimated pooled correlation (reverted by
hyperbolic tangent transformation) between stress and academic performance was found to be −0.32
(95% confidence interval: −0.38–−0.25). In conclusion, the review recognized a series of potentially
mutable medium‑to‑large correlates of academic achievement, time management, and stress. It
would be essential to have experimental data on how easily such self‑regulatory capacities can be
altered, and these interventions could help students enhance their potential, providing empirical tests
for offered process models of academic achievement.

Keywords

Academic achievement
meta‑analysis
stress
systematic review
time management 
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2021
Pages 1-6

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