the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on academic achievement according to sex among korean adolescents and the associated health behaviors

Background: after the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19), this study aimed to (1) identify whether the impactsof the covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic achievement differed according to their sex among korean adolescents, and(2) investigate the health-related behavioral factors affecting their academic achievement during the covid-19 pandemic.methods: herein, secondary data of the cross-sectional 15th–17th (2019–2021) korea youth risk behavior web-based surveywere used, targeting adolescents in middle and high school. a total of 167,099 individuals were selected and analyzed for selfreportedacademic grades and health behaviors using ordinal logistic regression analysis of the obtained results were comparedto the pre-covid-19 pandemic data in this regard (2019).results: high academic achievement in male adolescents significantly declined from 15.4% to 13.7% or 14.0% in 2019, 2020, and2021, respectively. compared to 2019, lower academic achievement was found in boys in 2020 and 2021 (odds ratio [or]=0.93,95% confidence interval [ci]=0.89-0.97, p=0.002 and or=0.95, 95% ci=0.91-0.99, p=0.010) while no significant differenceswere observed in girls. in boys in 2020 or 2021, the lowered academic achievement was associated with the time of internetuse for leisure during both weekdays and weekends, unhealthy health status, poor self-perceived health, a “fat” body image,stress, and skipping breakfast, stress, which increased during the covid-19 pandemic, as well as engaging in personal hygiene,smoking, and alcohol drinking (p<0.05).conclusions: to improve academic achievement in the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, it is necessary to develop and implementinterventions, especially for male students, focusing on health management and targeting the associated health behaviors.