Academic satisfaction among Health Sciences Students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency that has substantially modified medical education from face-to-face to online teaching modalities. Objective: To evaluate academic satisfaction before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of university students of health sciences in Peru. Material and Methods: Observational, cross-sectional, and comparative study. An ad hoc sociodemographic form was used; the following questions were included: How would you rate your academic performance at the university? Had you taken any virtual courses before the pandemic? Do you have internet connection at home? Did you fail any course last semester? What is your occupation? The Academic Satisfaction Scale (ASE), which was composed of eight items, was also used. All the questions were asked using a form that was valid on the virtual platform of the university for two weeks and applied in June 2019 (first evaluation) and August 2020 (second evaluation). Results: Among the sociodemographic variables evaluated, the poor quality of internet connectivity (Cohen’s d = -0,65) and self-assessment of performance as very high (Cohen’s d = -0,72) show moderate differences between 2019 and 2020. Conclusions: The academic satisfaction among health sciences students during the COVID-19 health emergency change considerably when the Internet connectivity is poor and the students evaluate themselves as high achievers, variables that can be considered when designing curricular strategies for health sciences students.