Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Public Health, Health Institute, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia.
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Allied Health Science, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
PLoS One. 2024 Jul 12;19(7):e0303034. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303034. eCollection 2024.
Academic achievement is crucial for the social and economic development of young people and determines the quality of education of a nation. According to different studies, food insecurity adversely affects children's health, nutrition, and subsequent decline in academic performance by impairing students' ability to learn and therefore affects the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. To provide evidence on the association of food insecurity with academic performance is necessary. The current study assessed household food insecurity and its association with academic performance among primary school adolescents in Hargeisa City, Somaliland.
A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 630 primary school adolescents from December 2021 to March 2022. Students were selected using a multistage sampling technique. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on household food security and socio-demographic variables and entered into Epi data version 3.1. The data was exported to SPSS version 26 for descriptive and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals together with p <0.05 were utilized to declare statistical significance.
The prevalence of food insecurity among school adolescents was 59.21%. The majority (55.40%) of the school adolescents were poor academic performers. The frequency of adolescents' poor academic performance was significantly high (71.05%) among food insecure households (P < 0.001) as compared to their counterparts whose households were food secure (32.68%). On multivariable analysis, household food insecurity (AOR = 5.24, 95%CI = 3.17-8.65), school absenteeism (AOR = 3.49, 95%CI = 2.20-5.53), spending >2h/day watching TV / screen media use (AOR = 9.08, 95%CI = 4.81-17.13), high and middle wealth households (AOR = 0.51, 95%CI = 0.30-0.88) (AOR = 0.40, 95%CI = 0.21-0.76) and habitual breakfast consumption (AOR = 0.08, 95%CI = 0.03-0.20) had shown statistically significant association with academic performance among primary school adolescents.
The present study revealed that household food insecurity has a high association with adolescents' academic performance. The prevalence of food insecurity is moderate, based on the household food insecurity access scale. The results indicate the need for policies and programs intended to improve household income by developing income-generation programs for lower-income families and enhance feeding programs such as national school lunch and school feeding across schools in the country.
学业成就对于年轻人的社会和经济发展至关重要，决定着一个国家的教育质量。根据不同的研究，粮食不安全会通过损害学生的学习能力，对儿童的健康、营养和随后的学业成绩下降产生不利影响，从而影响到全民享有优质教育和终身学习机会的可持续发展目标（SDG）的实现。因此，有必要提供粮食不安全与学业成绩之间关联的证据。本研究评估了哈尔格萨市索马里兰小学生家庭粮食不安全状况及其与学业成绩的关系。
这是一项于 2021 年 12 月至 2022 年 3 月在哈尔格萨市的 630 名小学生中进行的基于学校的横断面研究。使用多阶段抽样技术选择学生。使用访谈者管理的问卷收集家庭粮食安全和社会人口统计学变量的数据，并输入 Epi 数据版本 3.1。数据导出到 SPSS 版本 26 进行描述性和多变量逻辑回归分析。使用比值比及其 95%置信区间（p <0.05）来表示统计学意义。
学校青少年的粮食不安全发生率为 59.21%。大多数（55.40%）学校青少年学业成绩较差。与家庭粮食安全的青少年相比，粮食不安全家庭的青少年学习成绩较差的频率明显较高（71.05%）（P <0.001）。在多变量分析中，家庭粮食不安全（AOR=5.24，95%CI=3.17-8.65）、逃学（AOR=3.49，95%CI=2.20-5.53）、每天看电视/屏幕媒体使用超过 2 小时（AOR=9.08，95%CI=4.81-17.13）、高收入和中等收入家庭（AOR=0.51，95%CI=0.30-0.88）（AOR=0.40，95%CI=0.21-0.76）和经常吃早餐（AOR=0.08，95%CI=0.03-0.20）与小学生的学业成绩呈统计学显著关联。
本研究表明，家庭粮食不安全与青少年的学业成绩高度相关。根据家庭粮食不安全获取量表，粮食不安全的发生率处于中等水平。结果表明，需要制定政策和方案，通过为低收入家庭制定创收方案，以及在全国范围内加强学校供餐和学校供餐等营养方案，来提高家庭收入。
