ArticleEuropean journal of nutrition2016
Adherence to the Mediterranean diet and academic performance in youth: the UP&DOWN study.
Article in European journal of nutrition, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Correlates of adherence to the Mediterranean diet among preschool-age and school-age children living in Mediterranean countries: a systematic review.European journal of nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Patterns in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- The influence of diet quality and dietary behavior on health-related quality of life in the general population of children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2019Pooled it
- Brain structural pathways linking dietary patterns and cognitive performance in adolescents.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of a Nutrition Education Programme on Nutritional Knowledge in Young Football Players: A Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Early morning physical activity is associated with healthier white matter microstructure and happier children: the ActiveBrains project.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Children and Adolescents and Association with Multiple Outcomes: An Umbrella Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Factors associated with Mediterranean diet adherence in a sample of high socio-economic status children from southern Spain.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Comparison Between Two Divergent Diets, Mediterranean and Western, on Gut Microbiota and Cognitive Function in Young Sprague Dawley Rats.Gut microbes reports · 2024Article
- Neurodevelopment and Dietary Intake in Toddlers-A Cross-Sectional Study from the Healthy Children 2021 Project.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Lifestyle Behaviours, Self-Esteem and Academic Performance in Primary Education Students-A Structural Equation Model According to Sex and School Type.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Dietary patterns and cognitive achievement among school children in socio-cultural context, a case of Montevideo, Uruguay.European journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Parents' Diet Quality and Physical Activity Are Associated with Lifestyle in Spanish Children and Adolescents: The PASOS Study.Nutrients · 2023Article
- The moderating role of recreational substance use in the association of Mediterranean diet with academic performance among adolescents.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Intervention Programme Based on Self-Determination Theory to Promote Extracurricular Physical Activity through Physical Education in Primary School: A Study Protocol.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- School and non-school day screen time profiles and their differences in health and educational indicators in adolescents.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2022Article
- The Mediterranean Diet and the Western Diet in Adolescent Depression-Current Reports.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Are Dietary Patterns Related to Cognitive Performance in 7-Year-Old Children? Evidence from a Birth Cohort in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.Nutrients · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo examine the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and academic performance in children and adolescents.
methodsThis is a cross-sectional study conducted with 1371 youth aged 12.04 ± 2.50 years (685 girls) in Spain during 2011-2012. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed using the KIDMED index (Mediterranean Diet Quality Index in children and adolescents), which includes 16 questions on specific dietary patterns. Levels of adherence were classified into three groups: poor adherence (0-3), average adherence (4-7), and good adherence (8-12). Academic performance was assessed through school records using four indicators: math, language, an average of math and language, and grade point average score.
resultsAdherence to the Mediterranean diet was related to academic performance (β ranging from 0.107 to 0.148; all P < 0.001) after adjusting for confounders. The group of good adherence to the Mediterranean diet had significantly higher scores in all of the academic indicators compared with the poor group (ranging from +0.429 to 0.464; all P ≤ 0.001); as well as the group of average adherence to the Mediterranean diet had significantly higher scores in all of the academic indicators compared with the poor group (ranging from +0.292 to 0.344; all P ≤ 0.06). There were no differences between the groups of good and average adherence to the Mediterranean diet.
conclusionsAdherence to the Mediterranean diet may have a beneficial influence on academic performance in youth. Importantly, the benefits of adherence to the Mediterranean diet on academic performance may be stronger as youth adhered to the optimal Mediterranean diet levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.