The role of health behavior in the academic performance of the students

Health care behavior is one of the major criteria for determining the health which improves the health and quality of life. This behavior helps the quality of life and having a good performance. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between health behavior and academic performance of elementary school students. This descriptive correlational study was conducted on 427 primary school students through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using Palang health behavior questionnaire. Academic performance was evaluated from mean score of students. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between academic performance and health behavior of the students in the field of personal health care (r = 0.402, p = 0.001), nutrition (r = 0.546, p = 0.001), exercise (r = 0.389, p = 0.001), sleep (r = 0.332, p = 0.001) and stress control (r = 0.515, p = 0.001). The dimensions of health behavior can be a predictor of academic performance. Among them, stress control than the other dimensions plays an important role. According to the findings, it is suggested that planned measures should be taken to train the health behaviors to the students in educational policy for their learning promotion.