Factors Affecting Undergraduate Student's Academic Failure in Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran; A Case-Control Study

academic failure has always been one of the major challenges of higher education institutions that could cause serious individual and social outcomes. This study aimed to analysis the effect of potential factors on students’ academic failure in Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
This was an unmatched case-control study. The study population consisted of all undergraduate students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in two semesters in 2012. From 514 selected students, 246 were assigned to the case group and the rest were studied in the control group. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire via consensus methodology. The questionnaire consisted of three sections: individual, family and academic factors. Reliability of the questionnaire was approved by a group of faculty members and its internal consistency was estimated as 0.82. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.
The mean age of studied students was 22.2 years. The mean grade point average (GPA) of was 14.2 and 16.9 in cases and controls, respectively. Academic failure was 1.64 times more in boys than the girls (P = 0.02) and 1.59 times more in students who had a sense of frustration (P = 0.02). Students who reported using drugs, tobacco or alcohol experienced academic failure 6.39 times more than the others (P = 0.01).
Academic failure is a phenomenon affected by multiple factors. Therefore, reducing it requires the participation of a wide range of people taking part in students’ learning.