A Psychological Analysis of the Effects of Poor Diet in University Students

Abstract

The consequences of poor nutrition in university students can cause overweight, poor academic performance and chronic, degenerative diseases caused by metabolic alterations and lack of physical activity. The objective of this work was to know the nutritional conditions, and to determine the risk of presenting some type of diseases in the university population due to poor nutrition. For this purpose, an online survey of 16 items was used using Google Forms to 392 students from universities in Ecuador. The results of the study show that university students are more vulnerable to have a poor diet due to lack of income, time, stress and anxiety caused by academic responsibilities. This causes a greater tendency to consume foods that have an impact on their health, such as overweight and poor academic performance.