Cargando…

Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students

Individuals with obesity tend to perform less well than their non-obese peers in tertiary education, but there is little evidence from non-Western countries and recent studies. The present study aimed to test whether academic attainment differed between female undergraduates with obesity (defined by...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Al Hammadi, Hanouf H., Alaslawi, Hamad A., Hewitt, Allan, Reilly, John J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443771/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32913642
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2020.24
_version_ 1783573688001495040
author Al Hammadi, Hanouf H.
Alaslawi, Hamad A.
Hewitt, Allan
Reilly, John J.
author_facet Al Hammadi, Hanouf H.
Alaslawi, Hamad A.
Hewitt, Allan
Reilly, John J.
author_sort Al Hammadi, Hanouf H.
collection PubMed
description Individuals with obesity tend to perform less well than their non-obese peers in tertiary education, but there is little evidence from non-Western countries and recent studies. The present study aimed to test whether academic attainment differed between female undergraduates with obesity (defined by body mass index (BMI)), and those who were non-obese in Kuwait, a country with very high obesity prevalence. In 400 female Kuwaiti first- and second-year Social Science students (mean age 18⋅0, sd 0⋅6 years), educational attainment was defined as the Grade Point Average (GPA) across all subjects (from 1⋅00 to 4⋅00). The mean GPA (2⋅51, sd 0⋅53) among students defined as obese by the BMI (n 163) was significantly lower than among the students defined as non-obese by the BMI (n 237; 2⋅80, sd 0⋅63; P < 0⋅001), and those defined as obese were more likely to be in the lowest quartile for the GPA (OR 3⋅03; 95% CI 1⋅90, 4⋅85), independent of socio-economic status. Similar differences were observed between students defined as having high versus normal body fatness. Female undergraduates in Kuwait with obesity have lower academic attainment than their non-obese peers, and universities should consider measures to mitigate reduced attainment among their female undergraduates.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7443771
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Cambridge University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-74437712020-09-09 Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students Al Hammadi, Hanouf H. Alaslawi, Hamad A. Hewitt, Allan Reilly, John J. J Nutr Sci Research Article Individuals with obesity tend to perform less well than their non-obese peers in tertiary education, but there is little evidence from non-Western countries and recent studies. The present study aimed to test whether academic attainment differed between female undergraduates with obesity (defined by body mass index (BMI)), and those who were non-obese in Kuwait, a country with very high obesity prevalence. In 400 female Kuwaiti first- and second-year Social Science students (mean age 18⋅0, sd 0⋅6 years), educational attainment was defined as the Grade Point Average (GPA) across all subjects (from 1⋅00 to 4⋅00). The mean GPA (2⋅51, sd 0⋅53) among students defined as obese by the BMI (n 163) was significantly lower than among the students defined as non-obese by the BMI (n 237; 2⋅80, sd 0⋅63; P < 0⋅001), and those defined as obese were more likely to be in the lowest quartile for the GPA (OR 3⋅03; 95% CI 1⋅90, 4⋅85), independent of socio-economic status. Similar differences were observed between students defined as having high versus normal body fatness. Female undergraduates in Kuwait with obesity have lower academic attainment than their non-obese peers, and universities should consider measures to mitigate reduced attainment among their female undergraduates. Cambridge University Press 2020-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7443771/ /pubmed/32913642 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2020.24 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Al Hammadi, Hanouf H.
Alaslawi, Hamad A.
Hewitt, Allan
Reilly, John J.
Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students
title Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students
title_full Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students
title_fullStr Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students
title_full_unstemmed Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students
title_short Differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese Kuwaiti female university students
title_sort differences in educational attainment between obese and non-obese kuwaiti female university students
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443771/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32913642
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2020.24
work_keys_str_mv AT alhammadihanoufh differencesineducationalattainmentbetweenobeseandnonobesekuwaitifemaleuniversitystudents
AT alaslawihamada differencesineducationalattainmentbetweenobeseandnonobesekuwaitifemaleuniversitystudents
AT hewittallan differencesineducationalattainmentbetweenobeseandnonobesekuwaitifemaleuniversitystudents
AT reillyjohnj differencesineducationalattainmentbetweenobeseandnonobesekuwaitifemaleuniversitystudents