The Effect of Martial Status on Academic Performance of Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study

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Objective: To measure association of demographics of medical students with attitude towards affect of marriage on education. Study Design: Cross-sectional study Place of Study: CMH Lahore Medical College, Lahore. Methodology: Students from all years of the MBBS, house officers and post graduate trainees were included in this study. Data was collected through two semi structured questionnaire designed, validated and reliability was assessed by reliability analysis using chronbach alpha which was 0.80. Information from married and unmarried subjects was collected separately. Data was entered and analyzed by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 22.0). Descriptive statistics for qualitative data was calculated in form of frequencies and percentages whereas descriptive statistics for quantitative data were calculated in the form of mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test of significance was used to see association, if any between marriage and academic performance. P-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Total response rate was 92.5%. Mean age of unmarried respondents was 23.50+ 1.86. Mean age at marriage of females was 22.52+2.47 and for males it was 22.78–1.95. The gender distribution of the unmarried respondents was 31.6% male and 68.4% female while among married respondents there were 37.5% male and 62.5% female. Significant association was found between marriage and better academic performance (p =0.001). More female married respondents were of the view that they wish they had not married before graduation, significant value of (p=0.04) was obtained. Sixty seven point seven(67.7%) unmarried respondents thought that their married colleagues were happy; 84.9% said that they feel more relaxed as compared to their married colleagues. Eighty four point nine (84.9%) said they would marry after graduation. Eighty one point seven (81.7%) unmarried respondents were of the view that marriage clashes with the study. Conclusion: Marriage has beneficial effects on academic performance and life's perception overall. Opinion varies among gender about being married before graduation or after which is understandable owing to difference in responsibilities and level of understanding between the spouses.