Academic achievement, BMI, and fast food intake of American and Japanese college students

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between grade point average (GPA), body mass index (BMI), and fast food intake, and to test five different hypotheses regarding these target variables. Design/methodology/approach - In total, 57 American and 72 Japanese college students are recruited from two different universities and the participants provide their gender, age, weekly fast food intake, GPA, and their actual height and weight are measured. Findings - It is found that GPA is negatively correlated with BMI and fast food intake, and BMI and fast food intake are positively correlated in the American sample. A negative correlation between GPA and fast food intake is also found in the Japanese sample. Although no differences of GPA are found in regard to the physiques of both American and Japanese samples, a marginally significant difference of GPA is found in the American sample in regard to their fast food intake. In the Japanese sample, a significant difference of GPA is found only in women, but not in men regarding their fast food intake. Research limitations/implications - People may need to consider possibly negative implications of fast food intake upon academic achievement of college students. There might be cultural differences in the meaning of fast food consumption between the USA and Japan. Originality/value - The present study is the first cross-cultural study to investigate the relationship between physique, fast food consumption, and academic achievement of American and Japanese college students.