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Adherence to the Mediterranean diet and academic performance in youth: the UP&DOWN study

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Abstract

Purpose

To examine the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and academic performance in children and adolescents.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study conducted with 1371 youth aged 12.04 ± 2.50 years (685 girls) in Spain during 2011–2012. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed using the KIDMED index (Mediterranean Diet Quality Index in children and adolescents), which includes 16 questions on specific dietary patterns. Levels of adherence were classified into three groups: poor adherence (0–3), average adherence (4–7), and good adherence (8–12). Academic performance was assessed through school records using four indicators: math, language, an average of math and language, and grade point average score.

Results

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was related to academic performance (β ranging from 0.107 to 0.148; all P < 0.001) after adjusting for confounders. The group of good adherence to the Mediterranean diet had significantly higher scores in all of the academic indicators compared with the poor group (ranging from +0.429 to 0.464; all P ≤ 0.001); as well as the group of average adherence to the Mediterranean diet had significantly higher scores in all of the academic indicators compared with the poor group (ranging from +0.292 to 0.344; all P ≤ 0.06). There were no differences between the groups of good and average adherence to the Mediterranean diet.

Conclusions

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet may have a beneficial influence on academic performance in youth. Importantly, the benefits of adherence to the Mediterranean diet on academic performance may be stronger as youth adhered to the optimal Mediterranean diet levels.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the youth, parents, and teachers who participated in this study. The UP&DOWN study was supported by the DEP 2010-21662-C04-00 Grant from the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation [R+D+i] MICINN.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standard

Parents and school supervisors were informed by letter about the nature and purpose of the study, and written informed consent was provided prior to their inclusion in the study. This study followed the ethical standards recognized by the Declaration of Helsinki (reviewed in Seoul, Republic of Korea in October 2008) and the EEC Good Clinical Practice recommendations (document 111/3976/88, July 1990), and current Spanish legislation regulating clinical and biomedical research in humans, personal data protection and bioethics (Royal Decree 561/1993 on clinical trials and 14/2007, 3rd July, for Biomedical research).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Education, Sports and Human Movement, Autonomous University of Madrid, Ctra de Colmenar km 15, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Irene Esteban-Cornejo, Rocio Izquierdo-Gomez & Oscar L. Veiga

  2. Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain

    Sonia Gómez-Martínez & Ascensión Marcos

  3. Department of Physical Education, School of Education, University of Cadiz, Puerto Real, Spain

    Carmen Padilla-Moledo & Jose Castro-Piñero

Authors
  1. Irene Esteban-Cornejo
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  2. Rocio Izquierdo-Gomez
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  3. Sonia Gómez-Martínez
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  4. Carmen Padilla-Moledo
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  5. Jose Castro-Piñero
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  6. Ascensión Marcos
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  7. Oscar L. Veiga
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irene Esteban-Cornejo.

Additional information

On behalf of UP&DOWN Study Group.

Please see the “Appendix” for The UP&DOWN Study Group.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 60 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (DOC 189 kb)

Appendix: The UP&DOWN study group

Appendix: The UP&DOWN study group

Coordinator: Ascension Marcos. Principal Investigators: Ascension Marcos, Oscar L. Veiga, Jose Castro-Piñero, and Fernando Bandrés. Scientific Coordinators: David Martinez-Gomez (chair), Jonatan R. Ruiz (co-chair), Ana Carbonell-Baeza, Sonia Gomez-Martinez, and Catalina Santiago. Spanish National Research Council: Ascension Marcos, Sonia Gomez-Martinez, Esther Nova, Esperanza L. Diaz, Belén Zapatera, Ana M. Veses, Jorge R. Mujico, and Alina Gheorghe. Autonomous University of Madrid: Oscar L. Veiga, H. Ariel Villagra, Juan del-Campo, Carlos Cordente (UPM), Mario Diaz, Carlos M. Tejero, Aitor Acha, Jose M. Moya, Alberto Sanz, David Martinez-Gomez, Veronica Cabanas-Sanchez, Gabriel Rodriguez-Romo (UPM), Rocio Izquierdo-Gomez, Laura Garcia-Cervantes, and Irene Esteban-Cornejo. University of Cadiz: José Castro-Piñero, Jesús Mora-Vicente, José L. González-Montesinos, Julio Conde-Caveda, Francisco B. Ortega (UGR), Jonatan R. Ruiz (UGR), Carmen Padilla Moledo, Ana Carbonell Baeza, Palma Chillón (UGR), Jorge del Rosario Fernández, Ana González Galo, Gonzalo Bellvís Guerra, Álvaro Delgado Alfonso, Fernando Parrilla, Roque Gómez, and Juan Gavala. Complutense University of Madrid: Fernando Bandrés, Alejandro Lucia (UEM), Catalina Santiago (UEM), and Felix Gómez-Gallego (UEM).

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Esteban-Cornejo, I., Izquierdo-Gomez, R., Gómez-Martínez, S. et al. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet and academic performance in youth: the UP&DOWN study. Eur J Nutr 55, 1133–1140 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-0927-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-0927-9

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