SOCIETY
Healthy breakfasts fuel better academic results, says study
Baku, November 21, AZERTAC
Researchers at Cardiff University have evidence of direct, positive links between children eating breakfast and educational attainment.
Children who eat a healthy breakfast before starting the school day achieve higher academic results than pupils who do not, according to a study.
Public health experts at Cardiff University who carried out the research say their findings provide the strongest evidence yet of a direct and positive link between eating breakfast and educational attainment.
Their report, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, suggests that the odds of achieving an above-average score in tests at the age of 11 were up to twice as high for pupils who ate breakfast, compared with those who did not.
There is already substantial research into the links between eating breakfast and measures of concentration and focus; this is the first to show a “meaningful” link between eating breakfast and concrete measures of academic attainment, the authors claim.
The Cardiff study, which tracked 5,000 nine- to 11-year-olds from more than 100 Welsh primary schools, adds to a growing body of evidence showing that effective interventions to improve pupils’ health is likely to improve their academic performance.