Effects of schooling on aspects of attention in rural Burkina Faso, West Africa

Abstract

BackgroundWe aimed to study the effects of schooling on aspects of attention using the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA) among children in rural Burkina Faso.MethodsWe re-enrolled children of a previously community-based cluster randomized exclusive breastfeeding trial in rural Burkina Faso. A total of 534 children (280 boys and 254 girls) aged 6 to 8 years were assessed using the TOVA. We examined the effect size difference using Cohen’s d, ANOVA and conducted regression analyses.ResultsForty nine percent of the children were in school. Children not in school performed poorly with a small effect size difference for ‘Response Time’, ‘Errors of omission’, and ‘Errors of commission’ compared to children in school. The effect size difference was moderate for ‘Response Time Variability’, and ‘D prime score’.ConclusionSchooling affects different aspects of attention in rural Burkina Faso. In settings where literacy and schooling rate is low, public sensitizations of the benefits of schooling need to be reinforced and advice on sending children to school need to be provided continuously.

DHEAS and Human Development: An Evolutionary Perspective

“…The question remains as to whether differences in timing of adrenarche associated with undernutrition have a demonstrable impact on the timing of cognitive processes associated with the 5to-8 transition and middle childhood. In WEIRD populations, in addition to underlying process of brain development, cognitive development is scheduled by age-related progression through school which plays an important role in entraining attention (177)(178)(179). In fact, cross-cultural studies suggest that the timing of the 5-8 transition is consistent across societies (74,87), implying that underlying brain maturation, including peak glucose utilization (53) and associated synaptogenesis (138) show similar timing across populations.…”