Nutritional status and correlation with academic performance among primary school children, northwest Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the association between nutritional status and academic performance among primary school children in Debre Markos Town, northwest Ethiopia, 2017. RESULTS: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 27.5% (95% CI 23.2-31.9%), 20.4% (95% CI 16.5-24.3%) and 8.7% (95% CI 6.2-11.5%), correspondingly. The low level of educational performance was significantly higher (p < 0.05) among the stunted, underweight and wasted children than that of the normal children. In multivariable logistic regression, age of the child (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 0.177, 95% CI 0.07, 0.4), monthly income less < 1000.00 birr (AOR = 0.05, 95% Cl 0.02, 0.15), stunted children (AOR = 0.21, 95% CI 0.10, 0.43) and under-weight (AOR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.26, 0.84) were associated with academic performance. This study revealed that indicators of undernutrition were prevalent among school-age children. Thus, collaboration between the health and education sectors is required to alleviate the problem.