Healthy dietary practices, adequate sleep duration, and regular physical activity were significantly associated with lower BMI, body fat percentage, and visceral fat levels among nursing intern students, with physical activity demonstrating the strongest inverse association with BMI.
Physical activity demonstrated the strongest inverse association with BMI among all examined lifestyle behaviors.
The regression model explained approximately 52% of the variance in BMI among nursing intern students.
Healthy dietary practices were significantly associated with lower BMI, body fat percentage, and visceral fat levels.
Frequent fast-food consumption, sugary drink intake, and breakfast skipping were significantly associated with higher BMI and adiposity indicators.
Adequate sleep duration was significantly associated with lower BMI, body fat percentage, and visceral fat levels.
This research suggests that among nursing intern students, everyday lifestyle habits — including how much they exercise, what they eat, and how long they sleep — are meaningfully linked to their body composition. The study measured body fat, muscle mass, visceral fat (fat stored around internal organs), and BMI in 801 nursing students using a body composition analyzer. Students who were more physically active, ate healthier diets, and got adequate sleep tended to have lower BMI, less body fat, and lower visceral fat levels. By contrast, students who frequently ate fast food, consumed sugary drinks, or skipped breakfast tended to have higher BMI and more body fat. Of all the lifestyle factors examined, physical activity had the strongest relationship with BMI. Together, the lifestyle variables studied accounted for about 52% of the differences in BMI seen across students, which is a relatively substantial portion. This suggests that lifestyle behaviors collectively play a large role in determining body composition in this population of young adult healthcare trainees. This research matters because nursing students face demanding training schedules that may make healthy habits difficult to maintain, and poor body composition in young adulthood can have long-term health consequences. The authors note that future studies following people over time or testing specific interventions are needed to better understand whether changing these lifestyle habits directly causes improvements in body composition, as cross-sectional studies like this one can only show associations, not cause and effect.
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Upload Your LabsHuwaikem M, Bano R. (2026). Cross-sectional study assessing the association between lifestyle patterns and body composition among nursing intern students.. Frontiers in public health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1892928