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Association of overweight and cognitive performance in Mexican children
Author(s) -
Caamaño María del Carmen,
García Olga Patricia,
Ronquillo Dolores,
GarcíaVargas Gonzalo G,
Rosado Jorge Luis
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.211.6
Subject(s) - overweight , socioeconomic status , cognition , association (psychology) , medicine , obesity , percentile , psychosocial , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , pediatrics , demography , psychology , developmental psychology , gerontology , environmental health , population , psychiatry , mathematics , statistics , sociology , psychotherapist
Prevalence of overweight among children has increased recently; its health and psychosocial consequences have raised attention. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of obesity and cognitive performance in school‐age Mexican children. 875 children (6 to 8 years) from 18 schools accepted to participate. Weight and height was measured, and 9 cognition tests were administered, involving mathematics, memory, attention, vocabulary and visual‐spatial skills. A fasting blood sample was taken to measure hemoglobin and plasma zinc concentration, and a socio‐economic questionnaire was administered to mothers. 26% had BMI for age percentile >85%. Results from a univariate analysis of variance adjusted for school, age, socioeconomic status, gender, mother education level, plasma zinc and hemoglobin showed a significant effect of overweight children in the Arithmetic Wisc‐RM test. Overweighed children had a lower score [6.19 (95%CI: 5.7–6.7)] than children with normal weight [6.8 (6.4–7.1)]. The remaining 8 tests did not show association. Considering a possible effect of overweight on cognitive performance, more research is needed to confirm this effect and the mechanism involved.