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. 2021 Apr 16:9:e11107.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.11107. eCollection 2021.

Student health behavior and academic performance

Peter R Reuter #  1 , Bridget L Forster #  1
Affiliations

Student health behavior and academic performance

Peter R Reuter et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To explore the association between health behaviors and habits of university students and academic achievement.

Participants: Six hundred fourteen undergraduate students at a state university in the United States.

Methods: Students were invited over a 2-year period to participate in an anonymous online survey that asked questions concerning a wide range of health behaviors and habits; participants were asked to report their current grade point average (GPA). Standard Least Squares Models were used to examine differences in self-reported GPA across the different health behaviors and habits, with individuals as replicates.

Results: The study found positive associations between breakfast consumption, physical activity, and strength training and self-reported GPA, and negative associations between the hours of sleep per night, hours worked per week, fast food and energy drinks consumption, and use of marijuana, alcohol and electronic vaping products.

Conclusions: While there is an association for some of the studied health behaviors and habits with self-reported GPA, the effect sizes for these health behaviors were low. The significant effect of vaping on GPA as well as the increased use reported in this study indicates that the topic should be explored further. Furthermore, students should be educated on the potential positive and negative effects of health behavior choices to help them make better choices.

Keywords: Academic performance; Breakfast; College students; Fast food; Grade point average; Healthy eating; Sleep; Student health behavior; Vaping; Working.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Average number of hours slept per night and average self-reported grade point average (GPA) across all respondents.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Average number of hours worked per week and average self-reported grade point average (GPA) across all respondents.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Frequency of eating breakfast (measured in number of days that breakfast was eaten in the last week) and average self-reported grade point average (GPA) across all respondents.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Fast food consumption (measured as how often fast food was eaten in the last week) and average self-reported grade point average (GPA) across all respondents.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

The authors received no funding for this work.

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