The Impact of Commute on Students’ Performance

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of commuters in Gulf Medical University (GMU), the impact of length of commute on student's health, and the association between length of commute and academic performance. We conducted a cross-sectional study at Gulf Medical University in the Summer of 2018. It included students 18 years of age and above, regardless of gender, nationality, and year of study, enrolled across the various GMU programs, including Medicine, Dentistry, Basic Medical Science, Physical Therapy, Health Science, Nursing, and Pharmacy. Four hundred and twenty students actively participated in our self-administered questionnaire. Our study determined statistically significant associations between commute and a variety of factors such as physical difficulties, stress, the prevalence of accidents, sleep schedule, etc. Our study concluded that students having longer commutes experienced significant physical difficulties, higher levels of stress, and an increased risk of accidents. Furthermore, we found that students with increased commute times also seemed to lose sleep more frequently than those with shorter commute times. In addition, our study established that commute harms academic performance, as students who commuted for extended periods were shown to have decreased academic performance in addition to having less time to study.