Association between Eating Behavior and Academic Performance in University Students

Abstract

Objective: To determine the association between academic performance and eating behavior in university students in Chile.

Methods: A total of 680 college students, 409 (60%) women and 271 (40%) men, were randomly recruited and the mean age of the entire sample was 26. The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), which evaluates 3 dimensions of eating behavior—cognitive restriction (limiting own intake), uncontrolled eating (inclination to eat), and emotional eating (control of food intake in the context of negative emotions)—was used. Academic performance was measured by the grade point average (GPA) and was associated with eating behavior.

Results: Women had significantly higher scores in the “emotional eating” dimension than men (p = 0.002). The eating behavior analysis showed that female students with higher GPAs (above 5.5) had statistically significantly lower uncontrolled eating scores (p = 0.03) and higher cognitive restriction scores (p = 0.05) than women with lower academic performance (below 5.5). There were no significant associations between eating behavior and academic performance in men.

Conclusions: A positive association between eating behavior and academic performance was observed in female university students in Chile. Further studies are needed to explore the causes of this association and determine how to improve the nutritional habits of this population.

Key words:

• eating behavior
• university students
• academic performance
• healthy nutritional habits

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors are grateful to the Director of Information Technology at the Bernardo O’Higgins University for collaborating in the process of selecting and contacting students.