Scientific literacy at entry as a predictor of academic performance in medical students

Abstract

Introduction: Scientific literacy involves skills that enable students to identify, interpret, and use primary sources of scientific information. There is little evidence on whether scientific literacy predisposes college students to better academic performance.

Objective: To evaluate the predictive role of scientific literacy on the weighted average mark of the first academic semester in first-year human medicine students.

Method: Analysis with data routinely collected during the implementation of the course “Methodology of Scientific Research I”. This subject is taken by medical students at a Peruvian university between March and July 2023.Scientific literacy was assessed using the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) validated in Spanish, the weighted average mark was measured on a vigesimal scale. We performed a nonparametric quantile regression to model the weighted average based on the TOSLS score and other covariates.

Results: We analyzed data from 115 students, formulated three models. In all, the TOSLS score was a significant independent predictor of the weighted average at the end of the first semester. The magnitude of the effect of the TOSLS score was larger in the lower quantiles. In the full model, at the 25th quantile, the β coefficient was 0.25 (95% CI: 0.12 to 0.39), while at the 75th quantile, the β coefficient was 0.18 (95% CI: 0.08 to 0.27).

Conclusions: In first-year medical students, scientific literacy was able to predict academic performance at the end of the first semester, the incremental effect was greatest among those with the lowest weighted average mark.