The assessment of the physical activity of Romanian university students in relation to nutritional status and academic performance.

Background. Regular physical activity may help improve the students' academic performance, including academic achievement and grades, academic behavior such as time on task, factors that influence academic achievement such as concentration and attentiveness in the classrooms. Long term benefits of physical activity help to reduce the incidence of overweight and obesity and chronic disease such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Also, regular physical activity may reduce anxiety and depression and promote positive mental health. Aims. To estimate the physical activity level among students and to correlate it with academic performance, such as grades in the previous semester and hours of individual study, and the body mass index. Methods. The study was a cross-sectional survey analysis of 315 university medical students. Physical activity was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, the short self-administered form. Academic performance was estimated using additional questions, such as hours of individual study and average grades in the previous semester. Nutritional status was assessed by computing the body mass index. Descriptive statistical tests and multivariate analyses (Games-Howell test, Pearson correlation) using SPSS version 20 were performed. Results. Males performed more physical activity than females (p=0.002). Physical activity was correlated with the body mass index and body weight (p=0.02). The results of the study showed the correlation between total physical activity and the grades in the previous semester. Conclusion. The findings of this study underline the need to increase the level of physical activity among students in order to promote a healthy lifestyle and to improve academic performance. Secondly, the study highlights problems of public health; medical students could have a higher level of physical activity than the general population, being more informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]