The effects of dietary habits on Iranian students’ school performance, a pilot cross-sectional study

Objective: To determine whether dietary habits in Iranian secondary school students have any effect on an individual s performance in school. Methods: The observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran during the 2010-11 academic year. Standardised Graduate Point Average was used as school performance. A validated nationalised nutritional questionnaire, designed by an expert committee, was filled by each student. Data was analysed using SPSS 16. Results: The age of the 96 male high school students ranged betweeen 16 and 17 years, with the mean of16.65±0.3 years. Of the total, 50 (52.1%) students had negative and 46 (47.9%) had positive standardised GPA. The average score of the questionnaire for the students in the positive group was significantly higher than the others (26.3 vs. 21.04) (p 0.05). Conclusions: Poor school performance in Iranian secondary school students was in relation with poor dietary habits.