Abstract
Objective: To study whether BMI as a single influencing factor has any impact on college student academic performance. Methods: 540 (214 females, 326 males) university-level undergraduate medical students from the region of India and Saudi Arabia were studied for one year. Their BMI was calculated and compared with academic aggregate marks. Results: The majority of the students had normal BMI. On comparing grades of underweight, overweight, and obese students with normal weight students we found that there was no significant difference in their academic performance (p=0.899). Gender-wise comparison also showed an insignificant relationship between BMI and academic performance (females p=0.539, males p=0.622). Conclusion: Weight did not show any influence on academic performance when the BMI alone is compared with the academic performance of the students for a short duration (one year), irrespective of gender (male/female).