Botero-Meneses Juan Sebastián, Aguilera-Otalvaro Paula Andrea, Pradilla Iván, Talero-Gutiérrez Claudia, Ruiz-Sternberg Ángela María, Vélez-van-Meerbeke Alberto, Pinzón-Rondón Angela María
Neuroscience Research Group (NeURos), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá D.C. Colombia, 111211.
Grupo de Investigación Clínica (Clinical Investigation Research Group), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá D.C. Colombia, 111211.
Heliyon. 2020 Apr 22;6(4):e03821. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03821. eCollection 2020 Apr.
Malnutrition has been identified as a factor in growth and learning. The current study aimed to determine the nutritional status and basic learning skills of children from Chocó, Colombia.
We conducted a cross-sectional study of 631 children aged 5-11 years from two schools, collecting anthropometric measurements, nutritional quality surveys and sociodemographic data. Neuropsychological batteries were applied.
A total of 523 children were evaluated, with an average age of 8.49 ± 2.1 years. The results revealed that 2.9% of children were underweight, 0.4% were severely underweight, and 4.8% were diagnosed as having stunted growth. In addition, 71.8% of children were unable to draw a human figure. Beery-Buktenica Visual-Motor Integration test (VMI) performance was below the scores expected for these age groups in 73.9% of children. Battery of Differential and General Abilities (BADYG) performance revealed limited verbal skills. In a subsample of 117 children, anemia was detected in 12.8% of cases, and iron deficiency was present in 44.4% of cases. Global malnutrition was associated with impairments in BADYG performance (OR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.07-3.86).
The current results revealed that learning performance was below the expected level for children in these age groups across all of the applied tests. Although malnutrition could partially explain the poor performance of children in tests of learning abilities, additional factors are likely to be involved.
营养不良已被确认为影响生长和学习的一个因素。本研究旨在确定哥伦比亚乔科省儿童的营养状况和基本学习技能。
我们对来自两所学校的631名5至11岁儿童进行了横断面研究，收集了人体测量数据、营养质量调查和社会人口统计学数据。应用了神经心理测试组。
共评估了523名儿童，平均年龄为8.49±2.1岁。结果显示，2.9%的儿童体重过轻，0.4%的儿童严重体重过轻，4.8%的儿童被诊断为生长发育迟缓。此外，71.8%的儿童无法画出人像。在73.9%的儿童中，贝里-布克滕尼卡视觉-运动整合测试（VMI）成绩低于这些年龄组预期的分数。差异与一般能力测试组（BADYG）成绩显示语言技能有限。在117名儿童的子样本中，12.8%的病例检测出贫血，44.4%的病例存在缺铁。总体营养不良与BADYG成绩受损相关（比值比：1.98；95%置信区间：1.07 - 3.86）。
目前的结果显示，在所有应用测试中，这些年龄组儿童的学习成绩低于预期水平。虽然营养不良可能部分解释了儿童在学习能力测试中的不佳表现，但可能还涉及其他因素。
