Healthy Lifestyle and Academic Performance in Middle School Students from the Region of Aragón (Spain)

Abstract

A healthy lifestyle is important to the present and future development and health of school age people. This study aims to analyze the relationship between daily lifestyle habits and academic performance in a sample of adolescents from the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain). We performed a cross-sectional study to analyze the lifestyle habits and academic performance of a total of 1745 7th and 8th grade middle school students during the academic year 2018–2019; the participants were selected from a random sample of 43 middle schools from the region of Aragon. The following data were collected through an anonymized, previously validated questionnaire: diet, sleep, physical activity, use of screens, use of toxic substances, and academic performance. We found a statistically significant association between all the lifestyle habits analyzed and academic performance (p < 0.001) in our sample. Based on our findings, we suggest that health promotion and education in healthy lifestyles should be integrated in middle school curricula to improve academic performance and, more importantly, to promote both present and future health outcomes of adolescents.

A comparative study of life skills, lifestyle habits and academic performance in health promoting and non-health promoting schools in the Autonomous Community of Aragon, Spain

“…Also, as might be expected, unhealthy lifestyle habits have been linked to worse academic results ( Harlé & Desmurget, 2012 ; Rodericks et al, 2018 ; Navalon & Ruiz-Callado, 2017 ). In line with this, we expected students attending HPS to lead a healthier life and also to achieve better academic results than those attending a non-HPS ( Sánchez-Hernando et al, 2021a ). However, as opposed to previous studies ( Yuasa et al, 2015 ; Lee et al, 2019 ; Arthur et al, 2011 ; Passmore & Donovan, 2014 ), we found that students attending non-HPS consumed more vegetables and less sugary drinks, and exercised more frequently and for longer periods, both individually and as a group, than students attending HPS.…”

“…Regarding the students’ lifestyle habits, namely diet, sleep, physical exercise, use of screens and substance abuse, we observed that lifestyle habits do have an impact on academic performance ( Sánchez-Hernando et al, 2021a ). Some authors ( Kristjánsson, Sigfúsdóttir & Allegrante, 2010 ; Barchitta et al, 2019 ; Chacón-Cuberos et al, 2018 ; Burrows et al, 2017 ) have reported a positive association between healthy eating and academic performance, others ( Morón et al, 2018 ; Portoles & González, 2015 ) have found an association between sleep and academic achievement, and others, such as Kristjánsson, Sigfúsdóttir & Allegrante (2010) and Sánchez Pérez (2015) , confirmed that those students who exercised more, achieved better academic results.…”

“…This finding is in agreement with previous studies ( Durlak et al, 2011 ; Yuasa et al, 2015 ). It is not surprising that the non-HPS students achieved slightly better academic results that the HPS students, as both their life skills and lifestyle habits were also better ( Sánchez-Hernando et al, 2021a ; Sánchez-Hernando et al, 2021b ). Also, it is well known that the higher the socioeconomic level of the parents, the better the children’s academic performance ( Commision on Social Determinants of Health, 2007 ).…”

“…As this study is one part of a larger project, a doctoral thesis dealing with health promotion in the school environment, data were collected as previously described by Sánchez-Hernando et al (2021a) , Sánchez-Hernando et al (2021b) during the same study period (2021), specifically, the participants completed a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire throughout April 2019. This tool was adapted from four previously validated instruments, namely the questionnaire designed and implemented by the Health Behavior in School-Age Children (HBSC) study ( Moreno et al, 2016 ) carried out in Spain in 2014, the general self-efficacy scale ( Espada et al, 2012 ), the first subscales of the social skills assessment scale ( Goldstein et al, 1980 ), and the affect balance scale ( Godoy-Izquierdo, Martínez & Godoy, 2008 ).…”

“…The lifestyle habits dimension, as previously described by Sánchez-Hernando et al (2021a) , comprised five subscales: The diet subscale (nine items) comprised the following items: breakfast during the week (yes; no), weekly consumption of fruit and vegetables, chips or salty snacks, sweets, soft drinks or sugary drinks, meat, fish and milk or dairy products (up to once per week; 2 to 6 times a week; at least once a day). The sleep subscale (1 item) measured the number of hours of nighttime rest during the week (less than 7 h; from 7 to 9 h; more than 9 h).…”