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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
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21 September 2021

However, it is uncertain whether EI has a direct impact on the academic success of undergraduates
who follow health science streams. Since EI is an important character to be grown among the future

health care professionals to provide quality patient care, exploring how EI influences academic

performance of them is important. Therefore, in this systematic review, the impact of EI on academic
performance of health sciences undergraduates was evaluated.

Methodology

Electronic databases (MEDLINE and ERIC) were searched for studies assessing the impact of EI on
academic performance of health sciences undergraduates using the search term “Impact” OR “Effect”,

“Emotional Intelligence”, “Academic performance”, “Health Science Undergraduates (Nursing, Dental

and Medical)” by one investigator following the PRISMA Statement. A manual search was also
performed to find out the bibliographic references of relevant articles and existing reviews. Journal

articles published in English language with no restriction of year were included. The articles based on
the original studies focused on association/relationship/influence/impact of EI on objectively measured

academic performance (overall, theory or clinical/practical) at examinations of nursing, medical and

dental undergraduates studying in universities/measured undergraduate performance of final year were
considered as the inclusion criteria. Systematic reviews/meta-analysis, general opinions, letters to

editors, commentaries, articles published in other languages were excluded. Further, articles based on
original studies focused on university undergraduates, however the academic performance evaluated

with university entrance qualifications and other measures such as perceived academic or clinical
competency, communication skills, and stress management were also excluded. All eligible studies

were verified with the other investigators.

The data extracted from the studies were authors; year of publication; country; target population;

sample size; tools/methods used to assess EI and academic performance and association/

relationship/influence/impact between EI and academic performance (Table).

Results

Search Strategy

A total of 136 articles were identified through electronic database searches. Among these studies,

duplicates, studies not fulfilling the selection criteria were excluded and finally only 23 articles based
on original studies were selected for this review (Figure). They included seven studies focused on

nursing undergraduates, three on dental undergraduates and thirteen on medical undergraduates (Table).

Fifteen studies were cross-sectional in design while 05 were longitudinal and 03 were prospective/
retrospective studies. None of the studies were interventional. Methods used in the studies and findings

of the studies are summarized in Table.
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