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An association between chronic undernutrition and educational test scores in Vietnamese children
1Partnership for Child Development, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK. ahall@hkidhaka.org
Objective:
To examine the association between results of educational tests and the anthropometric status of schoolchildren.
Design:
Cross-sectional data collected during the baseline survey of a randomised trial.
Setting:
Eighty-one primary schools in three districts of northern Vietnam.
Subjects:
A total of 3055 schoolchildren enrolled in class 3 and born in 1990.
Main Outcome Measures:
Tests of mathematics and Vietnamese language developed not to show floor or ceiling effects, and Z-scores of height-for-age, weight-for-age and weight-for-height.
Results:
After controlling for age, sex, district and school the results of test scores in both mathematics and Vietnamese were significantly negatively correlated with Z-scores of height-for-age (P<0.001) and weight-for-age (P<0.001), but not with weight-for-height (P=0.75).
Conclusions:
A cross-sectional negative association was observed in Vietnamese primary school children between indicators of chronic undernutrition and tests of educational achievement.
Sponsorship:
The study was funded by donors to the Partnership for Child Development including the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Bank.
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