Peer-reviewed article
Nutritional status and dietary diversity as determinants of academic performance among primary school children in Jigjiga, Somali Region, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study.
Saleha Abdusamed Mohammed, Ebrahim Hassen Aden, Kalid Hassen Ibrahim ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how nutrition and diet affect school performance among 345 primary school children in Jigjiga, Ethiopia. The researchers found that 28.2% of children were underweight, with particularly high rates among girls and younger children. Children from families with better dietary diversity and those with normal weight had better academic performance. The study suggests that parental employment and education also play important roles in children's nutrition and school achievement.
Key points
- 28.2% of children were underweight, with higher rates among girls and children aged 5 to 7 years
- Most households reported adequate dietary diversity, but children from families with low dietary diversity showed poorer academic performance
- Normal nutritional status was associated with better educational outcomes
- Parental government employment and higher paternal education were linked with improved nutritional status in children
- The authors acknowledge that causal relationships cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional design
Limitations
As a cross-sectional study, this research cannot establish causal relationships between nutrition, dietary diversity, and academic performance—only associations. The study is limited to urban schools in one region of Ethiopia, so findings may not be generalizable to rural areas or other settings.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: School-aged children in resource-limited settings remain understudied in nutrition research, despite the well-documented effects of malnutrition on cognitive development and academic achievement. OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between anthropometric status, household dietary diversity (DD), and academic performance among primary school children in Jigjiga, Somali Region, Ethiopia. METHODS: A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 345 children aged 5 to 15 y, selected through stratified random sampling from five urban schools. Nutritional status was assessed using WHO z-scores for height-for-age (stunting), weight-for-age (underweight), and BMI-for-age (wasting). Household DD was measured using the Household Dietary Diversity Score, and academic performance was assessed from standardized school records. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 25, and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with nutritional and academic outcomes. RESULTS: Undernutrition was prevalent, with 28.2% of children underweight, particularly girls and those aged 5 to 7 y. Although most households reported adequate DD, children from families with low diversity consistently showed poorer academic performance. Normal nutritional status was associated with better educational outcomes. Parental characteristics also mattered: government employment and higher paternal education were linked with improved nutritional status in children. CONCLUSIONS: Undernutrition, especially underweight, significantly affects school-aged children in Jigjiga, particularly girls and younger children. DD and parental socioeconomic conditions strongly correlate with children's nutritional status and academic performance. These findings suggest the need for targeted, school-based nutrition programs and context-specific interventions, though causal relationships cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional study.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
Problem
Undernutrition and poor dietary diversity among school-aged children affecting academic performance
- Intervention
- No intervention was tested; this is an observational study examining the association between nutritional status, dietary diversity, and academic outcomes
- Population
- 345 primary school children aged 5 to 15 years in urban schools in Jigjiga, Somali Region, Ethiopia
Key finding
28.2% of children were underweight