These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Nutrition, anaemia, geohelminth infection and school achievement in rural Jamaican primary school children.
    Author: Hutchinson SE, Powell CA, Walker SP, Chang SM, Grantham-McGregor SM.
    Journal: Eur J Clin Nutr; 1997 Nov; 51(11):729-35. PubMed ID: 9368806.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: To determine whether nutritional status, anaemia and geohelminth infections were related to school achievement and attendance in Jamaican children. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study using a randomly selected sample. SUBJECTS: Eight hundred children aged 9-13 y randomly selected from those enrolled in grade 5 in 16 primary schools in rural Jamaica. RESULTS: The mean height-for-age of the children was -0.37 z-score +/- 1.0 s.d. with 4.9% having heights-for-age < -2 s.d. of the NCHS references. Anaemia (Hb < 11 g/dl) was present in 14.7% of the children, 38.3% were infected with Trichuris trichiura and 19.4% with Ascaris lumbricoides. Achievement levels on the Wide Range Achievement Test were low, with children performing at grade 3 level. In multilevel analyses, controlling for socioeconomic status, children with Trichuris infections had lower achievement levels than uninfected children in spelling, reading and arithmetic (P < 0.05). Children with Ascaris infections had lower scores in spelling and reading (P < 0.05) Height-for-age (P < 0.01) was positively associated with performance in arithmetic. Ascaris infection (P < 0.001) and anaemia (P < 0.01) predicted poorer school attendance. CONCLUSION: Despite mild levels, undernutrition and geohelminth infections were associated with achievement, suggesting that efforts to increase school achievement levels in developing countries should include strategies to improve the health and nutritional status of children. The association of nutritional status, anemia, and geohelminth infection with school attendance and performance was investigated in a cross-sectional study of 800 primary school students 9-13 years of age (mean age, 10.8 years) from 4 rural parishes in Jamaica. 4.9% of the children had heights-for-age less than 2 standard deviations of the US National Center for Health Statistics references and 14.7% were anemic; 38.3% were infected with Trichuris trichiura and 19.4% with Ascaris lumbricoides. Multivariate analyses, controlled for socioeconomic status, indicated children with Trichuris infection had significantly lower achievement levels than uninfected children in spelling, reading, and arithmetic, while those with Ascaris infection had significantly lower scores in spelling and reading. Height-for-age was positively associated with performance in arithmetic. Ascaris infection and anemia predicted poorer school attendance. The associations demonstrated in this study are not necessarily causal. However, these findings indicate that efforts to increase school achievement levels in developing countries should include strategies to address the health and nutritional status of rural children.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]