@article{ajnr2020842,
author={{Ibrahim, Alyaa Farouk Abdel Fattah and Alhamed, Arwa Abdulaziz and Almusa, Ghadir Mohammad},
title={Nutrition Related Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Female Health Sciences Students},
journal={American Journal of Nursing Research},
volume={8},
number={4},
pages={426--434},
year={2020},
url={http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajnr/8/4/2},
issn={2378-5586},
abstract={Malnutrition during students¡¯ early life inhibits normal growth and affects their mental developmental. Several factors may contribute to the negligence of healthy nutrition practices among college students. <b>The current study aimed to</b> identify nutrition related factors affecting academic performance of female health science students. <b>Methodology</b>: One hundred seventy-two female health sciences students were included in an institutional-based cross-sectional study at KSAU-HS, Riyadh. Data were collected using youth students¡¯ bio-socio-demographic and lifestyle structured interview questionnaire. <b>Results</b>: medicine students tended to have higher Body Mass Index (BMI)s compared to nursing students. About two tenth (20.8%) of the medicine students were overweight compared to only 14% of the nursing students, and 7% of the nursing students were obese compared to 8.3% of the medicine students. On the other hand, 22% of the nursing students were identified as underweight compared to 12.5% of the medicine students. BMI was significantly associated with Grade Point Average (GPA) among nursing students (<i>¦Ó</i><SUB>b</SUB> =0.120, p=0.029). Yet, it did not show significant correlation with GPA among medicine students (<i>¦Ó</i><SUB>b</SUB> =0.067, p=0.481). However, BMI was highly correlated with GPA for the total participants (t=6.355, Sig.=0.000, 95%CI=1.111-2.112). Highly significant correlations were found between BMI and all assessed socio-demographic and lifestyle factors except age. In addition, highly significant correlations were detected between GPA and all assessed socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. <b>Conclusion:</b> Study participants¡¯ BMI was highly correlated with their GPA. High significant correlations were detected between BMI, GPA and all assessed socio-demographic factors including; academic semester, college, marital status, parents¡¯ education, father¡¯s occupation and family income but did not show significant correlation with age. In addition, BMI and GPA showed high significant correlation with all assessed lifestyle factors including; stress, TV watching, computer/electronic use, physical activity, daily sleeping time and day naps.},
doi={10.12691/ajnr-8-4-2}
publisher={Science and Education Publishing}
}