THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' NUTRITION AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY HABITS, BODY MASS INDEX AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

The aim of this study was determined the habits of university students with regard to nutrition and physical activity and to examine the relevance of these habits to body mass index (BMI) and academic achievement. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 127 second-year students at a university. This study a questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice questions was used. The data were analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 25.0 program. A total of 81.9% of the participants were female, and their mean age was 20.07±1.4 years. The overall weighted grade average of the students was 2.93±0.47. The mean BMI of the students was 21.5±2. There was a statistically significant difference between the number of daily meals, the consumption of fruit, nuts and legumes, meat, processed food, with general weighted average (GWA) among the students participating in the study (p=.003, p=.001, p=.000, p=.032, p=.036, respectively). Moreover there was a statistically significant difference between the amount of physical activity and BMI (p=.008). The results show that the number of daily meals, fruit, meat, legumes, nuts, and processed food consumption behaviors of university students increase GWAs, while undertaking physical activity can positively improve BMI scores.