Physical Activity, Sport and Recreation (PhASRec), Focus Area, Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Health Science, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 24;18(17):8891. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18178891.
Obesity affects millions of children worldwide and can often impact their academic performance. This longitudinal study, conducted over seven years, determines the effects of excessive weight and obesity on the academic performance of primary school boys, taking into account their socio-economic status (SES). The study forms part of a seven-year (2010-2016) longitudinal study, the North-West Child-Health-Integrated-Learning and Development (NW-CHILD) study, which includes a baseline measurement and two follow-up measurements of the 181 participants from varying areas in the North West Province. Two-way frequency tables, repeated measure ANOVA's and Spearman rank order correlations were used to analyze the data. The Body Mass Index (BMI) of the participants reported an increase from 2010-2016. Nearly all of the school subjects reported small to large correlations between BMI and academic performance ( ≥ 0.1 and ≥ 0.3), except for Afrikaans in 2013 ( = -0.06). Only two subjects (English and Language as tested with the ANA test) reported medium effects ( ≥ 0.3), whereas the other subjects only reported small effects ( ≥ 0.1). No statistically significant relationships ( ≥ 0.05) were observed between the BMI values and academic subjects, however SES and school subject scores reported several statistically significant relationships, especially regarding Language (English and First Additional Language) and Mathematics ( = 0.02). Overweight and obese primary school boys in the North West Province of South Africa reported a higher academic performance in comparison to boys of a normal weight, even when SES was taken into consideration. Further studies are recommended to verify current findings regarding weight, obesity and academic performance.
肥胖影响着全球数以百万计的儿童，并且常常会影响他们的学习成绩。本项为期七年的纵向研究旨在确定超重和肥胖对小学男生学习成绩的影响，同时考虑了他们的社会经济地位（SES）。该研究是为期七年（2010-2016 年）的西北儿童健康综合学习与发展（NW-CHILD）研究的一部分，该研究包括对来自西北省不同地区的 181 名参与者的基线测量和两次随访测量。使用双向频率表、重复测量方差分析和斯皮尔曼等级相关分析来分析数据。参与者的体重指数（BMI）从 2010 年到 2016 年报告有所增加。几乎所有的学校科目都报告了 BMI 与学习成绩之间的小到中等相关性（≥0.1 和≥0.3），除了 2013 年的南非荷兰语（= -0.06）。只有两个科目（英语和用 ANA 测试的语言）报告了中等效应（≥0.3），而其他科目只报告了小效应（≥0.1）。BMI 值与学业成绩之间未观察到统计学上显著的关系（≥0.05），但 SES 和学校科目的分数报告了几个统计学上显著的关系，特别是关于语言（英语和第一附加语言）和数学（=0.02）。南非西北省的超重和肥胖小学生的学习成绩比体重正常的男孩高，即使考虑到 SES 也是如此。建议进行进一步的研究来验证当前关于体重、肥胖和学习成绩的研究结果。
