title: Pharmacy student absenteeism and academic performance.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the association of pharmacy students' personal characteristics with absenteeism and academic performance.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey instrument was distributed to first- (P1) and second-year (P2) pharmacy students to gather characteristics including employment status, travel time to school, and primary source of educational funding. In addition, absences from specific courses and reasons for not attending classes were assessed. Participants were divided into "high" and "low" performers based on grade point average.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred sixty survey instruments were completed and 135 (84.3%) were included in the study analysis. Low performers were significantly more likely than high performers to have missed more than 8 hours in therapeutics courses. Low performers were significantly more likely than high performers to miss class when the class was held before or after an examination and low performers were significantly more likely to believe that participating in class did not benefit them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was a negative association between the number of hours students' missed and their performance in specific courses. These findings provide further insight into the reasons for students' absenteeism in a college or school of pharmacy setting.
authors.affiliation: Touro College of Pharmacy, 2090 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, New York, NY 10027, USA. Levita.Hidayat@touro.edu
authors.forename: Levita
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hidayat
authors.forename: Sandeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vansal
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salbu
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013339:Students, Pharmacy