Effect of school feeding program on academic performance of primary school adolescents: A prospective cohort study.
Clin Nutr ESPEN
; 56: 187-192, 2023 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37344072
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
School Feeding Programs (SFPs) in low-income countries help vulnerable children learn better and maintain their health through the provision of nutritious food to school children. Ethiopia scaled up the implementation of SFP in Addis Ababa.AIMS:
We aimed at evaluating the effect of the SFP on the school performance of primary school adolescents in Addis Ababa, Central Ethiopia.METHOD:
A prospective cohort study design was employed on 322 SFP-beneficiary and equal-size non-beneficiary adolescents. SPSS version 24 and multivariable linear regression models were used.RESULT:
In linear regression, unadjusted model (Model 1), compared with the non-school-fed adolescent, the mean difference in difference of average academic scores of school-fed adolescents was higher by 2.11 (ß 2.11, 95% CI 1.39-2.83). The beta coefficient remained positive after adjusted for age and sex (Model 2 ß 2.11, 95% CI 1.39-2.83), sociodemographic variable (Model 3 ß 2.16, 95% CI 1.45-2.88), health and lifestyle variable (Model 4 ß 2.21, 95% CI 1.38-3.04). In the final model, adjusted for model five, school absenteeism, there was a significant difference in favor of school-fed adolescents on GPA-score (Model 5 ß 2.32, 95% CI 1.47-3.17). Furthermore, being adolescents in middle tertile wealth index families decrease GPA by 1.22 (ß -1.22, 95% CI -2.19 to -0.26) as compared to high tertile wealth index.CONCLUSION:
School feeding was positively associated with academic performance. However, these changes may not be meaningful to generate a firm conclusion on the utility of school feeding in improving the academic performance of adolescents.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Schools
/
Academic Performance
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
En
Journal:
Clin Nutr ESPEN
Year:
2023
Type:
Article