Abstract
BACKGROUND: Stress is considered a main health problem that leads to negative lifestyle habits. High academic stress is known to be one of the major factors that may contribute to a higher level of stress. Therefore, our aim was to measure the impact of academic stress on lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, eating habits, and quality of sleep of university students living in Kuwait. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on students in different universities in Kuwait aged 18-25 years. An online questionnaire was sent to students on various platforms. This questionnaire involved questions about the sociodemographic data, academic stress, physical activity, eating habits, and quality of sleep. Scales like the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, Compulsive Eating Scale, and Sleep Quality Questionnaire were used. RESULTS: A total of 875 students responded to the online survey. There was a significant association between an increase in educational stress score and compulsive eating score (p ≤ 0.001), and an inverse relation between the educational stress score and sleep quality (p ≤ 0.001). Additionally, sleep quality score decreased significantly with higher coffee intake (p ≤ 0.001) as well as with melatonin intake (p ≤ 0.001). Furthermore, we found a statistically significant decrease in the trend of the stress score as physical activity levels increased (p = 0.012). Also, our study found statistically significant differences in median stress scale scores between males and females (p ≤ 0.001), across the different university majors (p = 0.013), between different studying hours (p ≤ 0.001), and across different GPA grades (p ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, academic stress has a negative effect on physical activity, eating habits, and quality of sleep of university students in Kuwait. Therefore, these results must be taken into consideration, and action must be taken to decrease academic stress.