ArticlePublic health nutrition2015
The relationship between unhealthy snacking at school and academic outcomes: a population study in Chilean schoolchildren.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Nutrition items regulated by school nutrition policies in the USA and academic performance: a review of the non-policy literature.Public health nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Language Spoken at Home and Preschooler Dietary Quality at Early Care and Education Facilities that Serve Children from Families with Low Income.Journal of nutrition education and behavior · 2025Article
- Impact of Eating Context on Dietary Choices of College Students: Evidence from the HEALTHY-UNICT Project.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Snack Food Consumption across the Pune Transect in India: A Comparison of Dietary Behaviors Based on Consumer Characteristics and Locations.Nutrients · 2021Article
- Policy and Food Consumption: What Nutrition Guidelines Are Swiss Children Meeting and What Determines Adherence?Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Article
- The Consumption of Sweets and Academic Performance among Mongolian Children.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Pathways to inflammation in adolescence through early adversity, childhood depressive symptoms, and body mass index: A prospective longitudinal study of Chilean infants.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Article
- School nutrition: Support for providing healthy food and beverage choices in schools.Paediatrics & child health · 2020Review
- Factors behind healthy snack consumption at school among high-school students: a qualitative study.BMC public health · 2019Article
- Snacking patterns among Chilean children and adolescents: is there potential for improvement?Public health nutrition · 2019Article
- Article
- The combined impact of diet, physical activity, sleep and screen time on academic achievement: a prospective study of elementary school students in Nova Scotia, Canada.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2017Article
- Article
- Low adherence of Swiss children to national dietary guidelines.Preventive medicine reports · 2016Article
- Nutritional quality of diet and academic performance in Chilean students.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2016Article
- Eating habits and academic performance in secondary school: a cross-sectional analysis in a public school.Revista CuidarteArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWe examined the association between unhealthy snacking at school and academic outcomes in students from the Santiago Metropolitan Region (Chile).
designCross-sectional population-based study.
settingWe measured the nutritional quality of snacks at school using an FFQ, and accounting for the amounts of saturated fat, fibre, sugar and salt in the foods, and academic outcomes using national standardized test scores in Language and Mathematics. Multivariate regression analyses modelled the relationship between unhealthy snacking at school (exposure), potential confounders and performance in Mathematics and Language (outcomes). SUBJECTS: Random sample of 1073 students (13.1 (SD 2.3) years old) attending public, partially subsidized and private schools.
resultsFifty-six per cent of students ate items at snack time that were high in fat, sugar, salt and energy, and thus were considered to have unhealthy snaking. Thirty-six per cent and 8% were considered to have poor-to-fair and healthy snacking, respectively. Unhealthy snacking significantly lowered the odds of good academic performance in both domains. Students having unhealthy snacks were 56% less likely to pass in Language (fully adjusted OR = 0.44; 95% CI 0.23, 0.85) and 66% less likely to pass in Mathematics (fully adjusted OR = 0.34; 95% CI 0.19, 0.64) compared with students having healthy snack items.
conclusionsSchoolchildren eating unhealthy foods at snack time had worse academic performance in Language and Mathematics, as measured by a standardized test. Although association does not imply causation, these findings support the notion that academic and health-related behaviours are linked. More research is needed on the effect of school health programmes on educational outcomes.
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