Do college students’ living arrangements affect their health behaviors and academic performance?

Abstract

Objective: To assess how living arrangements influence lifestyle habits and behaviors that impact the health and academic achievement of students. Participants: 876 undergraduate students at a university in Florida. Methods: Students in all colleges were invited to participate in an anonymous survey. The survey was comprised of questions based on living arrangements, grade point average (GPA), anthropometric measures, as well as health behaviors. Data analysis was performed employing least squares regression and Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis Rank Sums Test tests. Results: Different living arrangements were related to different health behaviors, but not one arrangement was associated with unhealthy or healthy habits only. Overall, there was no significant association between students’ living arrangement, body-mass index (body mass index), and self-reported GPA. Conclusion: While university students’ living arrangements are associated with differences in health behaviors and habits, these differences have no significant impact on students’ average BMI or GPA.

Keywords:

• body mass index
• grade point average
• health behaviors
• living arrangements

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the IRB at our university.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.