Dietary Behavior and Academic Grades

Key findings

Compared to students with lower grades, students with higher grades are more likely to:

• Eat breakfast on all 7 days.

• Eat fruit or drink 100% fruit juice one or more times per day.

• Eat vegetables one or more times per day.

• Not drink a can, bottle, or glass of soda or pop.

The findings do not show that academic grades are associated with drinking one or more glasses of milk per day.

Figure 1A: YRBS 2019*

Dietary behaviors, by type of academic grades earned—United States, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019*

Summary

Findings refer to responses for the 7 days before the survey.

• 42% of U.S. high school students with mostly A's ate breakfast on all 7 days. This compares to 20% of students with mostly D's/F's.
• 62% of U.S. high school students with mostly A's ate fruit or drank 100% fruit juices one or more times per day. This compares to 54% of students with D's/F's.
• 66% of U.S. high school students with mostly A's ate vegetables (green salad, potatoes [excluding French fries, fried potatoes, or potato chips], carrots, or other vegetables). This compares to 52% of students with mostly D's/F's.

Figure 1B: YRBS 2019*

Dietary behaviors, by type of academic grades earned—United States, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019*

Summary

Findings refer to responses for the 7 days before the survey.

• 30% of U.S. high school students with mostly A’s drank one or more glasses of milk per day. This compares to 26% of students with mostly D's/F’s.
• 41% of U.S. high students with mostly A’s did not drink a can, bottle, or glass of soda or pop. This compares to 21% of students with mostly D's/F’s.

Disclaimer

*Figure 1A and Figure 1B illustrate the percentage of students who engaged in each health-related behavior, by type of grades mostly earned in school (mostly A's, B's, C's, D's/F's) (row proportions). The percentage of students who did not engage in each health-related behavior are not shown.

However, the percentages of students who did and did not engage in each health-related behavior (by grades earned) sum to 100%. Analyses controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade in school confirmed a significant association between dietary behaviors and academic grades.

Conclusions

These YRBS results show evidence of a significant association between academic grades and dietary behaviors. More research could help determine:

• Whether higher grades in school lead to healthy dietary behaviors.
• If some other factors lead to these dietary behaviors.
• If healthy dietary behaviors lead to higher grades.

There is a close relationship between health and education. Working together, education and health agencies, parents, and communities can ensure that students are healthy and ready to learn in school. Find out more about the connection between health and academic achievement on CDC’s Health and Academics web page.

About the data

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors priority health-risk behaviors among youth and adults in the United States. In particular, YRBSS monitors behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems.

YRBS is conducted every 2 years during the spring. YRBS provides data representative of students in grades 9–12 in public and private schools nationwide. In 2019, students completing the YRBS were asked, “During the past 12 months, how would you describe your grades in school?” Students had seven response options (mostly A’s, mostly B’s, mostly C’s, mostly D’s, mostly F’s, none of these grades, not sure).

In 2019, YRBS results showed that:

• 38.0% of students received mostly A’s.
• 37.1% received mostly B’s.
• 16.0% received mostly C’s.
• 4.6% received mostly D’s or F’s.
• 4.3% reported receiving none of these grades or were not sure.

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