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

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.