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Lower academic achievement more likely in obese adolescent girls
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Obese girls aged 11, 13 and 16 years performed at a lower academic level than their normal-weight peers, according to findings in a newly released study.
“There is a clear pattern which shows that girls who are in the obese range are performing more poorly than their counterparts in the healthy weight range throughout their teenage years,” Josephine N. Booth, PhD, of the School of Psychology at the University of Dundee, Scotland, said in a press release.
Booth and colleagues used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which included 5,966 participants with weight status. Of those participants, 71.4% were healthy weight with BMI z scores <1.04 (1,935 males; 2,325 females), 13.3% were overweight with BMI z scores between 1.04 and 1.63 (372 males; 420 females) and 15.3% were obese with BMI z scores ≥1.64 (448 males; 466 females).
Girls who were overweight at age 11 years showed lower academic achievement on standardized tests at age 11, 13 and 16 years compared with their healthy weight counterparts, even after controlling for a range of confounders, according to the study. In addition, when confounding for current weight status (assuming some participants reached a healthy weight by age 16 years), data suggested that girls who were obese at age 11 years continued to demonstrate lower academic achievement at age 16 years.
“In the present sample, this would be sufficient to lower average attainment to a grade D instead of a grade C,” which is the national average, the researchers wrote.
Overweight females and obese male participants had similar trends, but confounding factors attenuated the association, researchers wrote.
“Further work is needed to understand why obesity is negatively related to academic attainment, but it is clear that teenagers, parents, and policymakers in education and public health should be aware of the lifelong educational and economic impact of obesity,” John J. Reilly, PhD, professor of physical activity and public health science at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, said in the press release.
Disclosure: This study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the University of Bristol and the BUPA Foundation. The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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