Overnutrition and Scholastic Achievement: Is There a Relationship? An 8-Year Follow-Up Study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the association between overnutrition and scholastic achievement (SA). METHODS: A representative and proportional sample of 477 children of the 5th elementary school grade of both genders was randomly chosen during 2010, in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. SA was measured through the 2009 Education Quality Measurement System (SIMCE) tests of language (LSA), mathematics (MSA) and understanding of the natural environment (UNESA). Current nutritional status was assessed through the body mass index Z-score (Z-BMI). Nutritional quality of diet, schedule exercise, socioeconomic status, family, and educational variables were also recorded. Four and 8 years later, SA was assessed through the 2013 SIMCE and the University Selection Test (2017 PSU), respectively. RESULTS: Socioeconomic status, the number of repeated school years, and maternal schooling were strong predictors of 2009 SIMCE and the independent variables with the greatest explanatory power for LSA (Model R2 = 0.178; p < 0.00001) variances, besides of gender for MSA (Model R2 = 0.205; p< 0.00001) and UNESA (Model R2 = 0.272; p < 0.00001). Overnourished children did not have significantly lower 2009 and 2013 SIMCE and 2017 PSU outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that overnourished children did not achieve significantly lower SA.

Brain development and scholastic achievement in the Education Quality Measurement System tests in Chilean school-aged children.

BACKGROUND: Head circumference (HC), the anthropometric index of both brain development and nutritional background, has been described to be significantly associated with scholastic achievement (SA). The aim of this study was to determine the impact of nutritional background and current nutritional status parameters on SA in the Education Quality Measurement System (SIMCE) tests. METHODS: A representative sample of 33 schools was randomly chosen in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. The sample consisted of 1,353 school-aged children of both sexes, from the fifth grade of elementary school and from the first grade of high school who in 2009 took the SIMCE tests. Nutritional status was assessed through anthropometric parameters. Brain development was measured through the HC expressed as HC-for-age Z-score (Z-HC). RESULTS: Students with Z-HC < -2 SD and >2 SD obtained low and high SA, respectively, both in the language and the mathematics tests (P < 0.001). In general, in both grades, those students with Z-HC ≥ 0 SD increase more than double the probability to obtain language and mathematics SA scores ≥ the median (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: We confirm the hypothesis that HC is the most relevant physical index associated with SA; therefore, children with the lowest scores in the SIMCE tests probably have lower brain development.

Chilean school-age children twin registry: planning, sampling and implications.

We describe subject recruitment from the University of Chile School-Age Children Twin Registry (REMEUCHI). The research aim of REMEUCHI is to quantify the impact of genetic and environmental factors on scholastic achievement in a multicausal approach. The Ministry of Education of Chile, in collaboration with the Registry Office, provided the list of possible twin pairs graduated from high school in 2004 in Chile's metropolitan region. From a population of 70,065 school-age children who had graduated from high school, 434 possible twin pairs were analyzed. Of these, 327 were twins reared together (75.3% of the 434 possible twins pairs) and born between 1986 and 1987 in Chile (mean age 18 years), and approximately 8% were not twins despite matches on full name and birth data. The rest of the possible twin pairs were probably twins reared apart, since one member of the pair had moved to study in another region of Chile. Zygosity was determined through questionnaires, maternal reports of twin similarities, and by the hospital records of the twins at the time of birth. Three hundred and twenty-seven pairs were identified, where monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins represented 46.8% and 53.2% of pairs, respectively, with a DZ/MZ ratio of 1.14. Considering same-sex MZ pairs, the percentage of female pairs was greater (55.6%) than male pairs (44.4%). When DZ pairs were analyzed, 47.7% were of opposite sex, 20.1% were male pairs and 32.2% female pairs. In Chile, these findings represent a baseline study to contribute to the establishment of a national twin registry in the future.

Scholastic achievement: a multivariate analysis of nutritional, intellectual, socioeconomic, sociocultural, familial, and demographic variables in Chilean school-age children.

OBJECTIVE: We determined relative effects of nutritional status, intellectual ability, exposure to mass media, and socioeconomic, sociocultural, familial, demographic, and educational variables on scholastic achievement (SA). METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Exposure to mass media and nutritional, intellectual, socioeconomic, sociocultural, familial, demographic, and educational factors, including approximately 2000 variables, were measured in a representative and proportional sample of 4509 school-age children from elementary and high schools in Chile's Metropolitan Region. The field study was carried out between 1986 and 1987, and data processing, which lasted 15 y, was completed in 2002. RESULTS: Within the total sample, intellectual ability, level of maternal schooling, head circumference-for-age Z score, book reading, in-door plumbing, level of paternal schooling, type of school, quality of housing, height-for-age Z score, and calcium intake were the independent variables with the greatest explanatory power in SA variance (r(2) = 0.508). In most grades, IA was the independent variable with the greatest explanatory power in SA variance. In adolescents in their fourth year of high school and whose physical growth and intellectual development processes are consolidated, intellectual ability, age, head circumference-for-age Z score, book reading, type of school, and level of paternal schooling were the independent variables with the greatest explanatory power in SA variance (r(2) = 0.60). CONCLUSIONS: These findings show that SA is conditioned by multiple factors depending on the characteristics of school-age children, their families, and the educational system. Nutritional indicators of past nutrition are significantly associated with SA, especially head circumference-for-age Z score. This information may be useful for health and educational planning.