Nutritional diagnosis and its relationship with academic performance in public and private schools

Abstract

Adolescence is defined as the phase of life from childhood to adulthood, from 10 to 19 years of age. Focusing nutritionally, this stage is one of the most vulnerable to having a nutritional imbalance which affects their growth and physical, cognitive, psychological and social development. In Mexico, 1 in 3 adolescents between the ages of 6 and 19 are overweight or obese. More than 95% of these cases are due to a diet high in fat, salt and sugar and low physical activity. Objective: To determine their nutritional diagnosis of adolescents is a factor for their performance in their academic performance in public and private high schools. Material and methods: This research was an analytical, cross-sectional, prospective observational study. The sample with a confidence index of 95%, a margin of error of 5%, used a maximum variability and given that the size of the population was 200 students from 15 to 18 years of age, students of upper secondary level, the sample with the one that was worked on was 132, selected through a probabilistic, simple random sampling. Chi square was used for the relationship of the variables and measures of central tendency for the descriptive data. Results: the study was carried out in adolescents who study upper secondary education in the sixth semester in public and private schools, regarding the distribution of the BMI of the studied patients, it is observed that 52.9% of the participants who have eutrophic weight, while only 7.7% have obesity. 84.9% of the patients who had improved academic performance in public schools, since 76.6% of this, in private schools. Conclusions: a statistically significant relationship was found, obtaining a value of p=.002, showing a relationship between the type of school and the nutritional diagnosis.