Assessment of nutrition and learning skills in children aged 5–11 years old from two elementary schools in Chocó, Colombia

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition has been identified as a factor in growth and learning. The current study aimed to determine the nutritional status and basic learning skills of children from Choc o, Colombia. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 631 children aged 5-11 years from two schools, collecting anthropometric measurements, nutritional quality surveys and sociodemographic data. Neuropsychological batteries were applied. Results: A total of 523 children were evaluated, with an average age of 8.49 AE 2.1 years. The results revealed that 2.9% of children were underweight, 0.4% were severely underweight, and 4.8% were diagnosed as having stunted growth. In addition, 71.8% of children were unable to draw a human figure. Beery-Buktenica Visual-Motor Integration test (VMI) performance was below the scores expected for these age groups in 73.9% of children. Battery of Differential and General Abilities (BADYG) performance revealed limited verbal skills. In a subsample of 117 children, anemia was detected in 12.8% of cases, and iron deficiency was present in 44.4% of cases. Global malnutrition was associated with impairments in BADYG performance (OR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.07-3.86). Conclusions: The current results revealed that learning performance was below the expected level for children in these age groups across all of the applied tests. Although malnutrition could partially explain the poor performance of children in tests of learning abilities, additional factors are likely to be involved.

Prevalence and associated factors of overweight and obesity among primary school children: a cross-sectional study in Thanhhoa City, Vietnam

“…The results show that among 782 investigated children, 281 children (35.93%) were overweight/obese, congruent with the results of several studies conducted in urban areas/cities in Port Said (2011): 31.2%35 ; Uberaba, Brazil (2012–2013): 32.3%36 ; Ankara, Turkey (2015): 35.9%27 ; and New Zealand (2017–2018): 31.9% 37. The prevalence of overweight/obesity among primary school children in Thanhhoa is lower than the results of Hochiminh city, Vietnam (2014–2015): 55.6%38 but far higher than the results of Rikuzentakata, Japan (2013): 7.8%39; Guangzhou, China (2014): 18.2%18 ; Chocó, Colombia (2015): 13.2%40 ; Lomé, Togo (2015): 7.1%32 ; Nepal (2017): 25.7%17 ; and Abidjan, Ivory Coast (2018): 10.2% 41. Therefore, the epidemic of overweight/obesity among primary school children can be regarded as a matter of concern in Thanhhoa city.…”

“…From 2010 to now, globally, there has been a multitude of studies conducted to determine the prevalence and factors associated with overweight/obesity among children and adolescents 16–44. The first group of risk factors significantly associated with overweight/obesity among children is the characteristics of children and their families, including child’s sex,17–22 child’s age,18 19 21 birth order,19 overweight at birth,19 the number of siblings,19 23 school type (public/private),18 25 father/mother’s education,18 26 27 father/mother’s occupation,17 19 24 parental overweight/obesity or BMIs18 19 24 29 30 and residence (urban/rural) 21 22 24.…”

Assessment of Nutritional Status of School Children in Public and Private Sector Schools by Anthropometry

“…For the study population scoring below the expected performance, APMC Vol. 5 These tests evaluate language and visuomotor skills, which are prerequisites for reading and writing, acquired in formal elementary school education. Cultural variations do not affect VMI and HFD tests.…”