Background/Purpose .
Research on health factors influencing academic performance is critical as new findings may help students improve their learning. There are few studies, however, investigating the impact of gender, physical activity (PA), and body mass index (BMI) on university student learning. This study aims to examine if university student grade point average (GPA) is impacted by gender, PA and BMI.
Method
Data collected by ACHA-National College Health Assessment using an online self-reported survey at a large southern state university in 2008 were analyzed. In total, 1125 university students provided usable data comprising two-thirds females (61.5%) by gender and 57.0%, 20.5%, and 17.2% Whites, Asians, and Hispanics by race. Total weekly moderate and vigorous PA MET was the PA measure.
Analysis/Results
Three-way ANOVA was performed to test the difference of GPA by gender, PA and BMI. The ANOVA result revealed that the main effect of gender, PA and BMI was significant with a medium effect size. So were the simple effects for gender, and BMI, respectively. No significant simple effect of PA and interactions among the three variables were found, however. The Tukey post hoc test indicated that those whose BMI was greater than 30 had significantly lower GPA than those whose BMI were in the acceptable groups. Female GPA was higher than their male counterparts.
Conclusions University student GPA was significantly affected by gender and BMI. The effect of PA on GPA was not significant, however, which is not in line with previous research on the topic.
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