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

as well as in clinical performance evaluated based on OSCE scores (Stratton et al., 2005) of medical
undergraduates.

Discussion

The main purpose of the review was to identify the impact of EI on academic performance of health
sciences undergraduates. A majority of reviewed studies (n=14, 60.9%) have clearly observed that EI

has a significant association with academic success in health sciences undergraduates while others
have observed no associations. Studies that showed an inverse association were less in numbers. This

observation is concordant with the studies which identified the relationship between EI and academic

success of other categories of university undergraduates and school children in different levels.
However, the assumption that EI has a significant contribution on academic success of health sciences

undergraduates is still contradictory and cannot be generalized to all the health science undergraduates.
Most of the studies were cross sectional in design hence considered only an academic performance of a

given time. A point analysis may not capture the academic skills of an individual due to many other
factors. Studies that capture the academic performance during the entire period of study or in critical

evaluations such as barrier exams are likely to generate more valid information.

Though some of the studies have observed an association between EI and academic performance

measured in both clinical and theoretical components, these studies have used different scales to
evaluate the EI and academic performance. And further, some studies have not reported the

adaptability criteria of EI tools they used for the countries and cultures (Stough et al., 2009). These

reasons further limit the generalizability of observed associations between EI and academic success of
health sciences undergraduates.

The academic success is not purely predicted by the EI, the IQ level, personality, childhood character

development, social status, ethical behaviour and communication skills also may influence that
(Epstein and Hundert, 2002). Apart from that, the tools that have been used to assess the academic

performance might not have captured the EI since the tools did not contain criteria focused on EI
(Cheshire et al., 2015). The studies which did not observe the association between the EI and academic

success might be due to these reasons.

The main limitation of this review is that we considered only the objectively measured academic

performance. However, review would have been better if it was more elaborated on the contribution of
EI on the competencies of future healthcare professionals such as professionalism, ethical behaviour,

and ability to build a professional relationship as well. Therefore, we recommend further studies

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