A comparison between peer-assisted learning and self-study for electrocardiography interpretation in Thai medical students

Introduction: Peer-assisted learning has been shown to be an effective teaching and learning method. However, this technique has not been proven in Thai medical school. We aimed to compare the effectiveness of peer-assisted learning and self-study in interpreting an electrocardiogram in Thai medical students. Methods: This is a prospective, randomized controlled trial, conducted in Chonburi teaching hospital, a community hospital affiliated with Chulalongkorn University. All medical students from the fourth and fifth years, a total of eighty students, were randomly assigned to two groups of peer-assisted learning (PAL) and self-study (SS) via stratified randomization done by computer-generated randomization. The two groups were matched for sex and grade point average. In the PAL group, teaching was performed by the fourth and fifth year medical students. We conducted five weekly study sessions. Different topics of electrocardiogram interpretation were assigned to tutors for teaching. SS group would separately study the same topic on their own. Constructed response questions were used to assess the students at the beginning as a pre-test and after a five-week session as a post-test. Online self-assessment was delivered to students one month after the study. Results: Mean pre-test and post-test score was put into the analysis and compared across groups using t-test. No significant difference in pre-test score was observed between the two groups in the same academic year. There was a significant difference between the mean post-test score between the fourth year PAL and SS groups. Also, the mean difference score in the fourth year PAL group was higher than the fourth year SS group. However, in the fifth year group, there was no significant difference between the PAL and SS groups in the mean post-test score and mean difference score. Conclusion: In conclusion, peer-assisted learning is an interesting method to improve understanding and interpreting skills of basic ECG better than self-study in the early clinical year medical students.