A Western dietary pattern is associated with poor academic performance in Australian adolescents.

Siobhan Hickling,Anett Nyaradi,Angela Jacques,Gina Ambrosini,Jianghong Li,Jonathan Foster,Wendy Oddy

doi:10.3390/nu7042961

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate cross-sectional associations between dietary patterns and academic performance among 14-year-old adolescents. Study participants were from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. A food frequency questionnaire was administered when the adolescents were 14 years old, and from the dietary data, a ‘Healthy’ and a ‘Western’ dietary pattern were identified by factor analysis. The Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (WALNA) results from grade nine (age 14) were linked to the Raine Study data by The Western Australian Data Linkage Branch. Associations between the dietary patterns and the WALNA (mathematics, reading and writing scores) were assessed using multivariate linear regression models adjusting for family and socioeconomic characteristics. Complete data on dietary patterns, academic performance and covariates were available for individuals across the different analyses as follows: n = 779 for mathematics, n = 741 for reading and n = 470 for writing. Following adjustment, significant negative associations between the ‘Western’ dietary pattern and test scores for mathematics (β = −13.14; 95% CI: −24.57; −1.76); p = 0.024) and reading (β = −19.16; 95% CI: −29.85; −8.47; p ≤ 0.001) were observed. A similar trend was found with respect to writing (β = −17.28; 95% CI: −35.74; 1.18; p = 0.066). ANOVA showed significant trends in estimated means of academic scores across quartiles for both the Western and Healthy patterns. Higher scores for the ‘Western’ dietary pattern are associated with poorer academic performance in adolescence.

Highlights

Adolescence is a period of life when major psychosocial and biological changes occur, resulting in the highest nutrient requirement at any time across the lifecycle [1]
In the present study, based on the findings reported in the extant literature, we hypothesised that a healthier diet would be associated with higher academic achievement and a western type diet with poorer academic performance in Australian adolescents at 14 years of age
We examined the associations between adolescents’ dietary pattern intake and academic performance in the Raine cohort at age 14 and found that a higher z-score for the ‘Western’ dietary pattern was associated with significantly poorer academic performance independent of maternal education and race, family income, functioning and structure

Summary

Introduction

Adolescence is a period of life when major psychosocial and biological changes occur, resulting in the highest nutrient requirement at any time across the lifecycle [1]. Adolescence is an important stage for brain development, characterized by synaptic pruning, myelination and a growing number of neural connections, especially in the prefrontal cortex [2,3]. Adolescence is a vulnerable period of the life course with regard to nutrition because, with increasing independence from parents, food choices are more frequently made by adolescents. During this time of development, peer pressure and media promotion exert a relatively greater influence on food purchases, often in favour of less healthy nutritional choices [1]. Nutrition is one of the most important and modifiable environmental factors that may affect brain development, and cognition and academic performance [5]

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