School performance, nutritional status and trichuriasis in Jamaican schoolchildren

Abstract

Severe infections by the geohelminth Trichuris trichiura detrimentally affect young children's growth and development. There is concern that mild to moderate infections may affect older children's school performance and nutritional status. We therefore examined the relationship between varying intensities of infection and school achievement, attendance and nutritional status in 616 schoolchildren. A total of 409 children with Trichuris infection of intensities greater than 1200 eggs per gram of stool (epg) were first identified, then for every 2 infected children in a class, an uninfected child was selected. After controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, age, school and the presence of Ascaris infections, the uninfected children had higher reading and arithmetic scores than children with infections of more than 4000 epg and were taller than those with intensities greater than 2000 epg. However, there were no significant differences in spelling, school attendance and body mass index. Although a treatment trial is needed to determine causation, these results indicate that moderate levels of infection are associated with poor school achievement and growth.

Nutrition, anaemia, geohelminth infection and school achievement in rural Jamaican primary school children

“…This test has been used before in Jamaica and found to be reliable (Powell & Grantham-McGregor, 1980;Clarke et al, 1991;Simeon et al, 1994). The test consists of reading, spelling and arithmetic sub-tests and was administered by four trained testers.…”

“…Greater than one quarter of the world's population is currently infected with gastrointestinal helminths, the highest prevalence being found among school-aged children (Bundy & Cooper, 1989). School children infected with Trichuris trichiura and Ascaris lumbricoides tend to have poorer cognitive functions and school achievement than uninfected children (Kvalsvig et al, 1991;Nokes et al, 1992;Simeon et al, 1994). However evidence of an improvement following treatment is inconsistent (Nokes et al, 1992;Simeon et al, 1995a).…”

Micronutrient supplements for children after deworming

“…There have been a few trials of the effect of deworming on tests of cognitive function or educational achievement [44][45][46][47][48][49] , but the results have not been consistent. 30 Again, this could because of the assumption that the impact of worms is reversible by treatment alone.…”

Epidemiologia do desenvolvimento cognitivo de escolares em Jequié, Bahia, Brasil: procedimentos de avaliação e resultados gerais

“…Condições sócio-econômicas dos pais e variáveis de suporte doméstico são também preditores de níveis de sucesso escolar (Clark et al, 1991;Malta et al, 1998). Acrescenta-se ainda, que crianças infectadas por helmintos intestinais tendem a apresentar baixos escores de funcionamento cognitivo e rendimento escolar (Kvalsvig et al, 1991;Nokes et al, 1992;Simeon et al, 1994).…”