Correlation of Academic Activity Attendance and Examination Scores of Internal Medicine Residents
Wasithep Limvorapitak MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand
Objective : Internal medicine (IM) residency training program aims to train competent internists to provide healthcare
services to community. Examination is usually done during and at the end of training. Data regarding effect of curricular
activity attendance on examination performance are conflicting. This study aims to determine the effect of curricular activity
attendance of IM residents on their examination scores and the correlation between in-training examination (ITE) and board
certifying examination scores.
Material and Method: Activity attendance of IM residents was prospectively tracked during a 6-month period (June to
November 2014) prior to ITE. Multivariate regression analysis was used to identify correlation between attendance and
examination scores. Correlation between ITE and board certifying examination scores was also examined.
Results : The subjects included were 11 and 8 residents in their 2nd and 3rd year of training, respectively. Age, sex and medical
school GPA were the same between groups. During the study period, 34 lecture-type activities and 81 case-based non-lecture
sessions were provided to residents. Multivariable regression analysis showed that non-lecture activity attendance of more
than 65% improve score in clinical skills part of ITE by 10.53% (p-value = 0.003), while every 1.0 point increment in medical
school GPA improve clinical knowledge part of ITE by 19.24% (p-value = 0.009). The study showed moderate-to-strong
correlation between ITE and board certifying examination scores (clinical knowledge r = 0.72, p-value <0.001; clinical skills
r = 0.94, p-value <0.001).
Conclusion : Attendance to curricular activities, especially to case-based, non-lecture activities, is beneficial to IM residents
as measured by ITE. There was a strong correlation between ITE and board certifying examination scores.
Keywords : Internal medicine, Resident, Examination, Activity attendance
