Good learning environment of medical schools is an independent predictor for medical students' study engagement

Runzhi Huang; Yuanan Li; Meiqiong Gong; Wei Zhang; Shuyuan Xian; Jieling Tang; Bingnan Lu; Yiting Yang; Minghao Jin; Weijin Qian; Zhenglin Liu; Haonan Ma; Xinru Wu; Huabin Yin; Xin Liu; Chongyou Zhang; Erbin Du; Qing Lin; Zongqiang Huang; Min Lin; Xiaonan Wang; Yue Wang; Wenfang Chen; Yifan Liu; Jie Zhang; Shizhao Ji

doi:10.3389/fmed.2024.1299805

Good learning environment of medical schools is an independent predictor for medical students' study engagement

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Jul 31:11:1299805. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1299805. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Runzhi Huang^#^{1

2}, Yuanan Li^#³, Meiqiong Gong^#⁴, Wei Zhang^#^{1

2}, Shuyuan Xian^{1

2}, Jieling Tang³, Bingnan Lu³, Yiting Yang³, Minghao Jin³, Weijin Qian³, Zhenglin Liu³, Haonan Ma³, Xinru Wu³, Huabin Yin⁵, Xin Liu⁶, Chongyou Zhang⁷, Erbin Du⁸, Qing Lin⁹, Zongqiang Huang¹⁰, Min Lin¹¹, Xiaonan Wang¹², Yue Wang¹³, Wenfang Chen¹⁴, Yifan Liu³, Jie Zhang¹⁵, Shizhao Ji^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Burn Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China.
² Research Unit of Key Techniques for Treatment of Burns and Combined Burns and Trauma Injury, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Office of Educational Administration, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Department of Orthopedics, Shanghai General Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China.
⁷ Basic Medical College, Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
⁸ Frist Clinical Medical College, Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang, China.
⁹ Department of Human Anatomy, Laboratory of Clinical Applied Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.
¹⁰ Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
¹¹ Mental Health Education and Consultation Center, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
¹² Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
¹³ Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China.
¹⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Jinggangshan University, Ji'an, China.
¹⁵ Department of Gynecology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Study engagement is regarded important to medical students' physical and mental wellbeing. However, the relationship between learning environment of medical schools and the study engagement of medical students was still unclear. This study was aimed to ascertain the positive effect of learning environment in study engagement.

Methods: We collected 10,901 valid questionnaires from 12 medical universities in China, and UWES-S was utilized to assess the study engagement levels. Then Pearson Chi-Square test and Welch's ANOVA test were conducted to find the relationship between study engagement and learning environment, and subgroup analysis was used to eradicate possible influence of confounding factors. After that, a multivariate analysis was performed to prove learning environment was an independent factor, and we constructed a nomogram as a predictive model.

Results: With Pearson Chi-Square test (p < 0.001) and Welch's ANOVA test (p < 0.001), it proved that a good learning environment contributed to a higher mean of UWES scores. Subgroup analysis also showed statistical significance (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, we could find that, taking "Good" as reference, "Excellent" (OR = 0.329, 95%CI = 0.295-0.366, p < 0.001) learning environment was conducive to one's study engagement, while "Common" (OR = 2.206, 95%CI = 1.989-2.446, p < 0.001), "Bad" (OR = 2.349, 95%CI = 1.597-3.454, p < 0.001), and "Terrible" (OR = 1.696, 95%CI = 1.015-2.834, p = 0.044) learning environment only resulted into relatively bad study engagement. Depending on the result, a nomogram was drawn, which had predictive discrimination and accuracy (AUC = 0.680).

Conclusion: We concluded that learning environment of school was an independent factor of medical student's study engagement. A higher level of learning environment of medical school came with a higher level of medical students' study engagement. The nomogram could serve as a predictive reference for the educators and researchers.

Keywords: Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES); learning environment; medical education; medical students; nomogram; study engagement.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81930057, 81772076, 81971836), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (No. 2019-I2M-5-076), Deep Blue Talent Project of Naval Medical University, 234 Academic Climbing Programme of Changhai hospital and Achievements Supportive Fund (No. 2018-CGPZ-B03), Shanghai Rising-Star Program (Sailing Special Program) (No. 23YF1458400). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.