Abstract
ObjectiveTo evaluate the association between dietary habits and alcohol consumption on academic performance among university students. DesignCross-sectional study. SettingUniversity located in Madrid, Spain. Participants56 university students of nursing (45 women and 11 men). The study complies with the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the University Ethics Committee (36/2018). Main outcome measureDietary intake and habits assessed with validated survey, alcohol consumption and academic performance. AnalysisChi-square test, Student's t-test, ANOVA analysis, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis analysis and Shapiro-Wilk test. ResultsThe average daily energy intake of the students was 1918 ± 725 kcal and, on average, alcohol accounted for 6%. The increased energy contribution from alcohol was negatively correlated with body mass index (BMI). Moreover, an inverse association was also found in alcohol intake according to Body Mass Index (BMI) (p < 0.02). Students with failing grades (53.6%) reported a higher daily alcohol intake than those who passed (42.2 %) (32 g/day versus 24 g/day) (p = 0.043). ConclusionsAlcohol consumption is related to both poor academic performance as well as diminished quality of life. Thus, it is of vital importance to undertake awareness campaigns at various levels to dissuade alcohol consumption especially at early ages.
Highlights
A healthy lifestyle consists of a series of actions, habits and patterns of behaviour acquired at an early age and persisting, in the most of cases, into adulthood contributing to good health
In Spain, alcohol consumption among young people was generally associated with social events and nowadays the traditional pattern of consumption consist in heavy episodes of drinking (Ministerio de Sanidad Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, 2017)
The analysis of the anthropometric variables showed a mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of 23 Æ 3.4 (24.6 Æ 4.3 men vs 22.6 Æ 3.1 women)
Summary
A healthy lifestyle consists of a series of actions, habits and patterns of behaviour acquired at an early age and persisting, in the most of cases, into adulthood contributing to good health. The lifestyle of young university students often includes the consumption of drugs, and, in particular the consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially spirits, in this group of population is very high and it is currently considered a social and a public health problem (Mekonen et al, 2017b). In Spain, alcohol consumption among young people was generally associated with social events and nowadays the traditional pattern of consumption consist in heavy episodes of drinking (intake of large amounts of spirits in a short period of time) (Ministerio de Sanidad Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, 2017). In the Spanish population is estimated that 37.5% of young men have suffered from alcohol intoxication in the last month, while in the case of young women are 22.6% (Ministerio de Sanidad Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, 2017).
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