Association between Eating Behavior and Academic Performance in University Students

OBJECTIVE

To determine the association between academic performance and eating behavior in university students in Chile.

METHODS

A total of 680 college students, 409 (60%) women and 271 (40%) men, were randomly recruited and the mean age of the entire sample was 26. The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), which evaluates 3 dimensions of eating behavior-cognitive restriction (limiting own intake), uncontrolled eating (inclination to eat), and emotional eating (control of food intake in the context of negative emotions)-was used. Academic performance was measured by the grade point average (GPA) and was associated with eating behavior.

RESULTS

Women had significantly higher scores in the "emotional eating" dimension than men (p = 0.002). The eating behavior analysis showed that female students with higher GPAs (above 5.5) had statistically significantly lower uncontrolled eating scores (p = 0.03) and higher cognitive restriction scores (p = 0.05) than women with lower academic performance (below 5.5). There were no significant associations between eating behavior and academic performance in men.

CONCLUSIONS

A positive association between eating behavior and academic performance was observed in female university students in Chile. Further studies are needed to explore the causes of this association and determine how to improve the nutritional habits of this population.

Influence of content and particle size of waste pet bottles on concrete behavior at different w/c ratios

The goal of this work was to study the mechanical behavior of concrete with recycled Polyethylene Therephtalate (PET), varying the water/cement ratio (0.50 and 0.60), PET content (10 and 20 vol%) and the particle size. Also, the influence of the thermal degradation of PET in the concrete was studied, when the blends were exposed to different temperatures (200, 400, 600 degrees C). Results indicate that PET-filled concrete, when volume proportion and particle size of PET increased, showed a decrease in compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and ultrasonic pulse velocity; however, the water absorption increased. On the other hand, the flexural strength of concrete-PET when exposed to a heat source was strongly dependent on the temperature, water/cement ratio, as well as on the PET content and particle size. Moreover, the activation energy was affected by the temperature, PET particles location on the slabs and water/cement ratio.