Academic performance of undergraduate health science students who participate in extracurricular academic activities: a cross-sectional study

To investigate the association between participation in extracurricular academic activities and academic performance in biochemistry and human physiology in undergraduate health sciences students. A total of 214 university students (73.4 % women) from undergraduate health science courses participated in this study. Participants answered a questionnaire regarding biochemistry and human physiology. Participants were divided into two groups: those who participate in extracurricular academic activities (n = 124; 57.9 %) and those who do not (n = 90; 42.1 %). A Poisson regression model with a robust variance estimator was used to estimate the prevalence ratio (PR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI). In multivariate analysis, independently of gender and age, the group that did not participate in extracurricular academic activities had PR of 1.35 (95 % CI 1.12–1.63) for having worse academic performance. Our findings suggest an association between non-participation in extracurricular academic activities and lower academic performance in biochemistry and human physiology. Although a causal relationship cannot be established due to the study design, these results highlight the potential benefits of such activities and can inform institutional strategies to promote student engagement, potentially improving learning outcomes. • Extracurricular activities positively impact academic performance in health science students. • Students not engaged in extracurricular activities showed a 1.35x higher prevalence ratio of poor performance. • Biochemistry and physiology knowledge is enhanced by participation in extracurricular academic activities.