Longitudinal associations between weight status and academic achievement in primary school children

Abstract

Background: Evidence for longitudinal associations between childhood weight status and academic achievement remains unclear due to considerable heterogeneity in study design, measures of academic achievement and appropriate categorization of weight status.Objective: To examine longitudinal associations between childhood weight status (underweight, healthy weight, overweight/obese) and academic achievement in the transition from preschool to primary (elementary) school among Australian school children. Methods: Data were from the Healthy Active Preschool and Primary Years study. Height and weight, for calculating BMI were measured at baseline (preschool age 3-5 years; 2008/9) and follow-up (primary school age 6-8 years; 2011/12). Academic achievement was measured at age 9 years. Results: No associations between BMI z-score or weight category in the preschool years and later NAPLAN scores were found for boys. For girls, having a higher BMI z-score (B = À13.68, 95%CI: À26.61, À0.76) and being affected by overweight

Untangling the relationship between BMI and academic achievement in the elementary years

“…Although the continuous form of BMI is widely used in previous CLPM studies (42)(43)(44) , future studies will need to consider different thresholds for BMI as well as alternative body weight measures (e.g. waist circumference or waist hip ratio), which may better predict outcome variables (3) . For now, BMI is the best child weight indicator that we can obtain from the ECLS-K. Future studies may also need to consider alternative CLPM that can take into account a nested structure of data where individuals are cross-classified.…”

“…The negative association between BMI and academic achievement (AA) is well documented, particularly for girls (1)(2)(3) . This association is believed to reflect a causal effect of BMI, partly due to internalisation of the social stigma associated with body weight (4)(5)(6) or to more direct physiological mechanisms including impaired brain development (7) .…”

Boys with overweight status lagged behind girls with overweight status in reading: evidence from mendelian randomization

“…Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with childhood obesity becoming one of the most pressing issues in public health, clinical practice and research [1]. Childhood obesity is closely associated with adult obesity, morbidity and mortality [2] and also linked to important academic outcomes [3]. Previous studies have for example reported associations between childhood obesity and academic performance [4], negative teacher evaluation [5], and poor mental health [6].…”