Analysis of the quality of diet and academic performance in rural primary school students

Abstract

The aim was to analyze the relationship between the quality of diet and academic performance in rural primary school students, a cross-sectional study made up of 181 rural schoolchildren (8.75 ± 1.79 years) from the island of Fuerteventura. Academic performance was calculated through the average grade in the subjects described in Royal Decree 126/2014, February 28th. The quality of the Mediterranean diet was assessed through the KIDMED questionnaire. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test did not reflect statistically significant differences in academic performance as a function of the quality of the Mediterranean diet, neither in men nor in women (p > .005). The multinomial logistic regression test after adjusting for sex and age, reflected that schoolchildren with a higher quality of diet were more likely to have passed the areas of Social Sciences and Natural Sciences when compared to their failed peers (p < .05). Thus, a higher quality of the diet in rural primary schoolchildren seems to be associated with passing the areas of Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. Health promotion professionals in the school environment must consider the positive role that diet can play in academic performance and start programs to promote healthy eating among schoolchildren.