Absenteeism among medical undergraduate students

Objective: to assess the prevalence and causes of absenteeism among the undergraduate medical students of a public sector medical college in peshawar. material and methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted using a pretested self-administered semi-structured questionnaire from january 2015 to april 2015. the study was conducted on students of first year mbbs to fifty year mbbs in khyber medical college,peshawar,pakistan. quota sampling was done inclusion criteria was regular undergraduate students who were present on the day of interview,informed consent was taken and confidentiality was ensured. the primary outcome indicator was self-reported absenteeism from lectures from 12th january,2015 to 12th february,2015. the data analysed in spss version 20. results: five hundred students consented and filled the questionnaire. among these students,12.8% had not missed a class,37% had missed 1-5 lectures,22.6% had missed 6-10 lectures,10.2% had missed 6-10 lectures and 17.4% had missed more than fifteen lectures. majority students (35.86%) missed classes due to academic reasons. the main reasons reported for missing lectures was lack of free time between classes,dislike of lecturers,teaching style,peer pressure and lack of sleep. conclusion: poor teaching methods and social and personal factors are responsible for student’s absenteeism. changes in students habits and teacher performance can play a role in reduction of absenteeism from lectures. © 2016,khyber medical college. all rights reserved.