Interactive seminars or small group tutorials in preclinical medical education: results of a randomized controlled trial

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of RCT and non-RCT participants by educational format.

	RCT		Non RCT
	Small Group	Interactive Seminar	Small Group	Interactive Seminar	P value***
# students who completed questionnaire A	42	36	68	37
Sex
% Men	29	32	21	27
Study hours*	%	%	%	%
< 20hours	21.4	13.9	13.2	25.0
21-30 hours	59.5	69.4	63.2	66.7
> 30 hours	19.0	16.7	23.5	8.3
Grades on block tests in Year 3**	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Abdominal problems	6.9 (0.9)	7.0 (1.0)	7.2 (1.0)	6.8 (1.2)	0.563
Pulmonary/cardiac problems	6.5 (1.2)	6.5 (1.3)	7.1 (1.5)	6.5 (1.3)	0.079
Oncology	6.4 (1.1)	6.4 (1.1)	7.1 (1.1)	6.7 (1.2)	0.228
Nephrology	6.2 (0.9)	6.2 (0.9)	6.9 (1.3)	6.7 (1.3)	0.492
Endocrinology	6.5 (1.1)	6.3 (0.9)	6.6 (1.3)	6.2 (1.4)	0.563

RCT = Students randomly assigned;
Non-RCT = Students who were free to choose between small group tutorials and interactive seminars;
Questionnaire A = Questionnaire sent to all students three weeks before the start of the block;
Study hours = hours/week spent on didactic lectures, small group tutorials and individual study;
Grades on a ten-point scale: 0 = lowest; 10 = highest;
* RCT: SG vs IS: P = 0.091; Non-RCT: SG vs IS: P = 0.086 both by chi-square test;
**all RCT vs all Non-RCT: P = 0.966 by chi-square test;
*** P value is a result of Student Unpaired t test and represents non-RCT participants: SG vs IS.

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