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Childhood Obesity is Associated with Poor Academic Skills and Coping Mechanisms.

N. Gill,A. Gjelsvik,Laura Y. Mercurio,S. Amanullah

Published 2020 in Jornal de Pediatria

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship between obesity and select childhood flourishing markers including academic skills and coping strategies. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study utilizing parental reported data for children aged 10-17 years (n=22,914) from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). Multiple binary regressions assessed the association between BMI-for-age and five school-related and behavioral childhood flourishing markers independently and combined, including completing homework, showing interest in learning, finishing tasks, staying calm when challenged, and caring about academics. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, depression, sleep, digital media exposure, poverty, and parental education level. RESULTS Only 28.9% of children with obesity were reported to have all five markers, compared with 38% overweight, and 40.5% with normal BMI. In an adjusted model, obese children had significantly decreased odds of demonstrating four of five markers: showing interest in learning (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62-0.97), finishing tasks (aOR = 0.77, 95% CI, 0.63-0.94), staying calm when challenged (aOR = 0.73, 95% CI, 0.59-0.90), and caring about academics (aOR = 0.69, 95% CI, 0.55-0.86). Completing homework was not associated with obesity. Youth with obesity also had 23% decreased odds (aOR = 0.77, 95% CI, 0.61-0.98) of meeting the combined measure for flourishing markers. CONCLUSION Childhood obesity is associated with poor academic skills and coping strategies which may lead to worse individual and public health outcomes. Further studies are needed to create validated flourishing measures and identify interventions that promote healthy youth behavior and academic success.

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