Abstract

Background: Medical students are considered to have an adequate amount of knowledge about eating and being healthy. This study aimed to determine eating habits (EH) and their relationship with academic performance, and to assess psychological factors that would affect EH among students in different medical colleges, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study included 444 medical students from five different medical colleges including King Abdul-Aziz University, King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University, Ibn Sina National College, Fakeeh College of Medical Sciences, and Batterjee Medical College. Students were in their second academic year through internship. Data were collected via a validated and self-administered questionnaire.
Results: The mean age of participants was 22 ± 2.2216 years, where females were 78.2%. Almost 74.3% of the participants consumed a variety of food in balance. No significant relationship was found between different colleges and EH (p-value = 0.6766), and a weak association was found (r = 0.0138) between grade point average and EH. On the other hand, there was a significant relationship between academic years and EH and between body mass index and compulsive eating scale (CES) (p-values = 0.0217 and

Key words: Eating habits, medical students, compulsive eating scale, well-being, knowledge degrees.