Eating habits, physical activity and its association with academic stress in first year health science university students

Introduction: Bad eating habits, sedentary lifestyle and academic stress are factors to which university students are constantly exposed and, at the same time, these factors are associated with a negative impact on the health and academic performance of the student. Objective: To determine the association between eating habits, physical activity level and academic stress among freshmen of the Faculty of Health Sciences of a private university in Lima-Peru. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in students of Nutrition and Dietetics, Psychology and Dentistry careers in their first and second academic cycles 2018-2 and 2019-1 (n= 180). The application of three surveys previously validated in previous studies was carried out. Results: Eating habits obtained from the study were adequate in 96.1% of the sample. 38.9; 50.0; and 11.1% of the students performed low, moderate and high intensity physical activity, respectively. 2.2; 39.4 and 58.3% of the respondents had a very low, mild and moderate level of academic stress, respectively. An association was found between physical activity and academic stress (p= 0.028). No association was found between eating habits and academic stress (p= 0.517). Conclusion: Eating habits were not associated with academic stress. However, there was an association between physical activity level and academic stress.