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The Influence of Mineral Status on the Academic Performance
Author(s) -
Assimiti Daniela
Publication year - 2017
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.31.1_supplement.lb361
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , selenium , academic achievement , psychology , demography , developmental psychology , medicine , chemistry , communication , organic chemistry , sociology
Background It is well known that a balanced nutrition that is supplying the proper amount of minerals is absolutely essential for the development of the brain, maintenance of a normal cognitive function, as well as a major influencing factor of the behavior. This fact is even more important in the school‐aged children but little has been studied on the extent in which the mineral deficiencies might actually influence academic performance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the measure in which some minerals our students being more often deficient in (especially Zn and Fe, in this particular region of Thailand) affect the academic performance. Methods The study used a very simple and totally non‐invasive method to observe the mineral deficiencies in fingernails and pictures were taken. The GPAs of all the students were collected as well for reference. The participants were 46 boys and 38 girls age 3–11 from Kindergarten and Elementary, and 33 boys and 21 girls age 12–18 from Middle and High School. Data was further analyzed by using T‐test. Results Of the total number of students age 3–11 investigated, 26.09% boys and 23.68% girls were found to be zinc deficient, while 13.04% boys and 7.89% girls presented iron deficiency. In the higher grades, 47.62% girls and 36.36% boys were zinc deficient, while 24.24% boys and 9.52% girls were found to be iron deficient. Selenium and calcium deficiencies were found in isolated cases in both lower and higher grades. Correlation with the GPA and some of the previous ITBS scores (addressing mainly components as attention spans, concentration, and comprehension), along with the general observation of the behavior in some of the students showed to be concordant. Conclusions Overall, this easy way of identifying as early as possible eventual mineral deficiencies by only observing the fingernails can be a very valuable method to trigger the students with problems and help improve both academic performance, while promoting as well better nutrition, health, and behavior.