Understanding Impact of Unhealthy Lifestyle Choices and Cognitive Ability in College Going Students at an Indian Higher Education Institute

The growing problem of stress, obesity, insomnia and lethargy among young adults is a huge concern today. Unhealthy lifestyle choices are shown to cause adverse consequences on physical health. The cognitive ability of college students is also affected further as they indulge more into such activities.

The present study attempts to understand the correlation between stress, sleep, exercise and diet on cognitive ability amongst the college students.

A cross-sectional study was conducted amongst the college students in Indian setup for a period of one month. Random sampling was used to collect data from 60 samples. The questionnaire on lifestyle focused on factors such as exercise, diet, stress, smoking, drinking, sleep habits etc. as section A. Section B focused on certain typical questions related to ability to remember and applying simple logic. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis was done using SPSS version 21.

It was observed that most of the students under study are in the normal stress range between 4 and 7{range included: 1–3, 4–7 and 7–10(low, moderate and high)}, maximum students get adequate amount of sleep depicting no case of insomnia. Further, students who get optimum sleep between 6 to 7 hours, are found to be in the stress range between 4 to 7. Relationship between stress and cognitive ability showed that low stress levels improves memory and thinking capabilities as the majority of the students in the low stress range scored the highest memory test points.

Study shows a cumulative association of stress levels, sleep patterns, consumption of fruits and vegetables, low physical activity level with poor cognitive function, this can be further utilized to develop programmes focusing on improving the well-being.

Assessing relationship between diet, stress, sleep and cognitive ability