Nutritional quality of diet and academic performance in Chilean students.

Paulina Correa-Burrows,Estela Blanco,Sheila Gahagan,Raquel Burrows,Marcela Reyes

doi:10.2471/blt.15.161315

Abstract

ObjectiveTo explore associations between the nutritional quality of diet at age 16 years and academic performance in students from Santiago, Chile.MethodsWe assessed the nutritional quality of diet, using a validated food frequency questionnaire, in 395 students aged 16.8 ± 0.5 years. Depending on the amount of saturated fat, fibre, sugar and salt in the foods, diet was categorized as unhealthy, fair or healthy. Academic performance was assessed using high school grade-point average (GPA) and tests for college admission in language and mathematics. Academic results on or above the 75th percentile in our sample were considered good academic performance. We tested associations between nutritional quality of diet and good academic performance using logistic regression models. We considered sociodemographic, educational and body-mass index (BMI) factors as potential confounders.FindingsAfter controlling for potential confounding factors, an unhealthy diet at age 16 years was associated with reduced academic performance. Compared to participants with healthy diets, those with unhealthy diets were significantly less likely to perform well based on language tests (odds ratio, OR: 0.42; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.18–0.98) mathematics tests (OR: 0.35; 95% CI: 0.15–0.82) or GPA (OR: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.09–0.56).ConclusionIn our sample, excessive consumption of energy-dense, low-fibre, high-fat foods at age 16 years was associated with reduced academic performance.

Highlights

Health-related behaviours may play a role in the ability to learn
We studied 16 year-old students living in Santiago, Chile who were part of a cohort study beginning in infancy
When comparisons of characteristics were made between those who applied for higher education and those who did not, no differences were found in age, body-mass index (BMI) and weight at age 16 years

Summary

Introduction

Critical stages of brain maturation occur early in life, the development of certain structures and higher cognitive functions (e.g. abstract thinking, deductive reasoning and problem solving) takes place in adolescence and continues during early adulthood.[1,2,3] Brain development is strongly influenced by environmental factors, with nutrition playing a pivotal role.[4] Whereas the effect of nutritional deficits on cognition are well known, the impact of overnutrition became the focus of research in the past decade.[2,5,6]. A positive association between good diet and academic performance was found in adolescents from Canada,[12] Chile,[13] Iceland,[14,15] the Netherlands,[16] Norway,[17] Sweden[18,19] and the United Kingdom.[20]

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Conclusion