Department of Community Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health Sciences Centre, Kuwait University, Jabriya, Kuwait.
Med Princ Pract. 2012;21(1):14-9. doi: 10.1159/000331792. Epub 2011 Oct 20.
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between childhood obesity and student academic performance in the classroom setting.
A multi-stage cluster random sampling was used to select a representative sample of 1,213 fifth-grade students in male public schools. Height and weight were measured using a standard protocol. Overweight was defined as BMI ≥85th but <95th percentile, while obesity as ≥95th BMI percentile, using growth charts provided by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (2000). Data on each student's academic performance and sociodemographic factors were extracted from school records. Of the 1,213 students, 147 were absent on the day the survey was conducted. Therefore, the analysis was based on 1,066 students. Of the 1,066 students, 67 did not have previous school records because they were new in the school; hence the association between school performance and obesity was based on 999 students.
The prevalence of obesity was 186 (17.4%, 95% CI: 15.2-19.9%) while the prevalence of overweight was 232 (21.8%, 95% CI: 19.3-24.4%). There was no significant association between obesity and academic performance after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Parental education was the most important predictor for high academic performance in the classroom setting.
There is no association between obesity and academic performance in the classroom setting among boys in Kuwait. With the lack of evidence of a relationship between childhood obesity and academic performance, using high performance as a measure of success in prevention initiatives cannot be justified.
本研究旨在探讨课堂环境中儿童肥胖与学生学业成绩之间的关系。
采用多阶段聚类随机抽样方法，选择了 1213 名男校五年级学生的代表性样本。使用标准方案测量身高和体重。超重定义为 BMI≥第 85 百分位但<第 95 百分位，肥胖定义为 BMI≥第 95 百分位，使用疾病控制和预防中心（2000 年）提供的生长图表。从学校记录中提取每个学生的学业成绩和社会人口统计学因素的数据。在 1213 名学生中，有 147 名学生在调查当天缺席。因此，分析基于 1066 名学生。在 1066 名学生中，有 67 名学生由于是新入学的，因此没有之前的学校记录；因此，肥胖与学业成绩之间的关联基于 999 名学生。
肥胖的患病率为 186 例（17.4%，95%CI：15.2-19.9%），超重的患病率为 232 例（21.8%，95%CI：19.3-24.4%）。调整社会人口统计学因素后，肥胖与学业成绩之间无显著相关性。父母教育是课堂环境中高学业成绩的最重要预测因素。
科威特男孩中，肥胖与课堂环境中的学业成绩之间没有关联。由于缺乏儿童肥胖与学业成绩之间存在关系的证据，因此不能将高学业成绩作为预防措施成功的衡量标准。
