Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Students: A CHAID Analysis in Argentina

Authors

Keywords:

decision making, computer-assisted, decision trees, education, medical, students, medical

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected medical training and altered students’ academic experience and professional expectations. This study aimed to identify the personal and academic characteristics associated with a greater perception that the pandemic influenced the educational trajectory of medical students.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 736 medical students in Argentina. A CHAID analysis was used to generate a classification model based on several independent variables, following a splitting scheme determined by significance values and cross-validation.

Results: 73% of participants perceived that the pandemic influenced their educational trajectory. The main predictors were year of study (p = 0.017) and age (p = 0.009). The highest perception was observed among fifth-year students (79.7 %) and first-year students aged ≤ 21 years (74.7 %).

Conclusion: Students in advanced stages of training and younger students at the beginning of their studies reported a greater perceived impact, which may guide the development of educational and vocational support strategies.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

1. Moutsos I, Lamprinos D, Kostaki E-G, Georgakopoulos P, Siasos G, Oikonomou E, et al. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical training at the Greek national health service: a cross-sectional study [Internet]. Epidemiologia (Basel). 2025; 6(1):0013. DOI: 10.3390/epidemiologia6010013

2. Elendu C, Amaechi DC, Okatta AU, Amaechi EC, Elendu TC, Ezeh CP, et al. The impact of simulation-based training in medical education: a review [Internet]. Medicine (Baltimore). 2024; 103(27):e38813. DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000038813

3. Bani I, Mohamed Y, Andrade G. Evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on stress and burnout among Ajman University (AU) medical students [Internet]. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2024; 246:104245. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104245

4. Turana Y, Primatanti PA, Sukarya WS, Wiyanto M, Duarsa ABS, Wratsangka R, et al. Impact on medical education and the medical student’s attitude, practice, mental health, after one year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia [Internet]. Front Educ. 2022; 7:843998. DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2022.843998

5. Wang W, Li G, Lei J. The impact of COVID-19 on medical students [Internet]. GMS J Med Educ. 2024; 41(1):Doc10. DOI: 10.3205/zma001665

6. TMS Collaborative. The perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical student education and training: an international survey [Internet]. BMC Med Educ. 2021; 21(1):566. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-021-02983-3

7. Jhajj S, Kaur P, Jhajj P, Ramadan A, Jain P, Upadhyay S, et al. Impact of COVID-19 on medical students around the globe [Internet]. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2022; 12(4):1–6. DOI: 10.55729/2000-9666.1082

8. Silveira EA, Romeiro AMS, Junger AL, Fiaschi Ramos AC, Mortoza Alves P, Noll M, et al.The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education: a systematic review of distance learning, students’ perceptions, and mental health [Internet]. J Hum Growth Dev. 2023; 33(3):405–419. DOI: 10.36311/jhgd.v33.14647

Downloads

Published

2025-11-29

How to Cite

1.
Guevara Tirado A. Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Students: A CHAID Analysis in Argentina. Rev. cuba. med. mil [Internet]. 2025 Nov. 29 [cited 2025 Nov. 29];54(4):e025076790. Available from: https://revmedmilitar.sld.cu/index.php/mil/article/view/76790

Issue

Vol. 54 No. 4 (2025): October - December (In Progress)

Section

Brief Communication

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Alberto Guevara Tirado

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who have publications with this Journal accept the following terms:

  • The authors will retain their copyright and guarantee the Journal the right of first publication of their work, which will simultaneously be subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License. The content presented here can be shared, copied and redistributed in any medium or format; Can be adapted, remixed, transformed or created from the material, using the following terms: Attribution (giving appropriate credit to the work, providing a link to the license, and indicating if changes have been made); non-commercial (you cannot use the material for commercial purposes) and share-alike (if you remix, transform or create new material from this work, you can distribute your contribution as long as you use the same license as the original work).
  • The authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work (for example: depositing it in an institutional electronic archive or publishing it in a monographic volume) as long as the initial publication in this Journal is indicated.
  • Authors are allowed and recommended to disseminate their work through the Internet (e.g., in institutional electronic archives or on their website) before and during the submission process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase citations. of the published work.