Peer-reviewed article
Seafood and Neurocognitive Development in Children: A Systematic Review.
Lauren E O'Connor, Maureen K Spill, Sanjoy Saha, Arin Balalian, Julie S Davis et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This systematic review examined whether eating seafood helps children's brains develop better. The researchers searched scientific databases for studies comparing seafood consumption with brain development outcomes in children and teenagers. They found that eating more seafood, especially fatty fish, was linked to better cognitive development, though the evidence quality was low. The review included short-term experiments and longer-term observational studies, mostly from Europe and other countries, but found mixed or missing evidence for other aspects of development like emotional and behavioral health.
Key points
- Higher seafood consumption was associated with improved cognitive development in children aged 0-18 years (low certainty evidence)
- Evidence came from 5 short-term RCTs (12-16 weeks) where children aged 10 months to 15 years ate fatty fish compared to meat, poultry, or fish oil supplements
- Results were supported by 5 longer-term prospective cohort studies conducted in various countries
- Evidence was inconsistent for social-emotional and behavioral development outcomes
- Evidence was lacking for language, communication, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder outcomes
Limitations
The review included only 18 articles with most RCTs being short-term (12-16 weeks), limiting evidence on long-term effects. The certainty of evidence for cognitive development was rated as low, and evidence was entirely absent or inconsistent for most other neurodevelopmental outcomes examined.
Abstract
Seafood is a source of essential nutrients to support neurocognitive development of children and adolescents, but there are concerns about contaminant exposure. Assessing seafood as a food group, rather than a source of nutrients or contaminants, can inform future dietary guidance. This study aimed to update and assess relationships between seafood consumption during childhood and adolescence and neurocognitive development. Three electronic databases were searched until September 2024 to update a previous search from 2000 to 2019. Articles were included if associations were assessed between seafood intake during childhood and adolescence and neurocognitive development outcomes (cognitive development, social-emotional and behavioral development, movement/physical development, language/communication development, depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder). All articles were screened at title, abstract, and full-text levels by 2 independent analysts. Data were extracted by 1 analyst, quality checked by a second analyst, and synthesized narratively by 2 analysts independently, considering direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of results for each outcome; discrepancies were resolved via discussion. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-E and ROB 2.0. Certainty of evidence was assessed with Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Eighteen articles from 5 short-term (12-16 wk) RCTs conducted in Northern Europe and 9 prospective cohort studies conducted in various countries were included. The evidence suggested a relationship between higher seafood consumption and improved cognitive development outcomes for children and adolescents aged 0-18 y old (GRADE: low). This conclusion was informed by 5 short-term RCTs in which children aged 10 mo to 15 y were provided fatty fish compared with meat, poultry, or fish oil supplements. These RCTs were largely supported by results from 5 longer-term prospective cohort studies. Evidence was inconsistent for social-emotional and behavioral development outcomes and was lacking for other outcomes. Seafood consumption within current recommended intake amounts consumed mainly as fatty fish likely improves cognitive development outcomes in children and adolescents. This review was registered at PROSPERO as CRD42023432844.