Introduction: Academic performance of medical students is a source of concern in majority of the medical institutes of India. Various factors are known to affect the academic performance of medical students including stress, study hours, attitude of the student towards study etc. Many researchers have shown that class attendance is yet another important factor which affects performance of students. Student's non-attendance is a problem that extends beyond the school. It .(1) affects the student, their families, and the community Attendance is considered to be an important factor determining the (1,2, 3) performance of students. Various studies had shown signiöcant relationship between school attendance and academic achievements. When student non-attendance increases, research has shown a corresponding decrease in student achievement (Herberling & Shaffer, 1995). It has been seen that habitual absentees are more prone to long term unemployment, early discontinuation of education and more responsible for law and (4) order disharmony . Student absenteeism is listed as the number one problem in the daily administration of the schools in the early 1970s, according to a random sample of 500 members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (Defours, 1983; Rothman, 2001). Most of the absenteeism related studies had been conducted in early school age children and the attitude of absenteeism had been attributed to the childhood illnesses or the parents neglect to child education. (Kozinetz, 1995). Absenteeism has also been found to be detrimental to students' achievement, promotion, self-esteem, and employment potential (Boloz, 1983; DeKalb, 1999). Fleming and Zaörau (1982) found that over three- fourths of school failure rates were explained through student attendance percentages. In addition, many research indicates that regardless of social and economic factors the schools with higher attendance rates achieved higher test scores (Wheat, 1998; Greene, 1990; Applegate, 2004) Most of the absenteeism related studies had been conducted in early school age children and the attitude of absenteeism had been attributed to the childhood illnesses or the parents neglect to child education. Present study aims to önd out if academic performance of newly admitted medical students get affected by their attitude towards attending classes, and, if so, is it more signiöcant than other known (5) factors like perceived stress , study hours and pressure of (6) (7,8) study and self-esteem . The study result may have a long term impact on the planning and implementation of teaching methodology. Material and methods: 49 students of örst year MBBS of AIIMS Patna has been recruited for the study after taking due consent. st All the 1 year medical students of AIIMS Patna who spent at least 6 month in the institute and appeared at least one term/semester exam in all the three pre-clinical departments were included in the study. Exclusion criteria included those who were either not consenting for the study or the one who remained absent from the institution for some valid medical or other reason for longer period (at least 15 days). A brief introduction session had been organized followed by taking written consent regarding participation in the study. Questionnaires had been given to all the willing participants for the assessment of student's behaviour based upon öve parameters viz. class attendance, self-reported study hours, self-assessed performance and satisfaction score, stress level based upon perceived Medical Student's Stress questionnaire (PMSS questionnaire based upon 4-point Likert scale) and student's (6) academic performance . The feedback had been taken before the announcement of the results so that it couldn't affect their subjective responses. Data regarding class attendance and academic performance had been collected from all the pre-clinical departments/ academic section of the institute after due permission and consent from the participants. Performance score for each student had been calculated by computing marks percentages scored in all pre- clinical subjects by the student. Marks of only MCQ and OSPE section have been considered for calculation to avoid any DOES STRESSORS AND CLASS ATTENDANCE AFFECT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF MEDICAL STUDENTS? A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY. Original Research Paper Dr Kamlesh Jha Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, AIIMS Patna X 373 GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS The academic performance of medical students has always been a source of concern to the academicians of medical fraternity. The study aims to önd out the magnitude of the effect of class attendance on academic performance of medical students as well as the important stressors that may have an important and hidden impact over the academic performance of the medical students. Material and method: st 49 students of 1 academic year of AIIMS Patna have been recruited after proper consent. The questionnaire based assessment has been done to assess their socio-academic behavior as well as peer dynamics. Academic performance have been assesses by their performance in the institutional examinations. Perceived stress score has been assessed by the standard PMSS questionnaire. Result: Mean performance score was found to be 50.51 where as Mean stress score was 30. Self-reported mean hours devoted for self- studies varied from 0.5 hr. to 6 hr. with a mean of 3.09 + 1.41 hrs. 45 out of 49 students (91%). Class attendance has been found to be the most important factor affecting academic performance. The major source of stress among medical students is Time constraint, which also indirectly affect their sleep hours and sleep qualities. Besides, Competitive environment, less scope of self directed recreational activities etc are the source of stress for them. Conclusion: Attendance is an important determinant of academic performance and time constrains are the major source of stress among medical students which need to be addressed properly for their better academic performances. KEYWORDS : Academic performance, Attendance, Stress, Medical student ABSTRACT Physiology Yogesh Kumar* Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, AIIMS Patna *Corresponding Author Tribhuwan Kumar Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, AIIMS Patna IF : 4.547 | IC Value 80.26 Volume : 3 | Issue : 11 | November 2014 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179 VOLUME-6, ISSUE-11, NOVEMBER-2017 • ISSN No 2277 - 8160 Ramji Singh Additional Professor, Department of Physiology AIIMS Patna