Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:42:30.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nutritional status, brain development and scholastic achievement of Chilean high-school graduates from high and low intellectual quotient and socio-economic status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Daniza M. Ivanovic ,
Boris P. Leiva ,
Hernán T. Pérez ,
Atilio F. Almagià ,
Triana D. Toro ,
María Soledad C. Urrutia ,
Nélida B. Inzunza  and
Enrique O. Bosch
Daniza M. Ivanovic*
Affiliation:
University of Chile, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), Human and Clinical Nutrition Area, Santiago, Chile
Boris P. Leiva
Affiliation:
University of Chile, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), Human and Clinical Nutrition Area, Santiago, Chile
Hernán T. Pérez
Affiliation:
University of Chile, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), Human and Clinical Nutrition Area, Santiago, Chile
Atilio F. Almagià
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Valparaíso, Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Valparaíso, Chile
Triana D. Toro
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Valparaíso, Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Valparaíso, Chile
María Soledad C. Urrutia
Affiliation:
Ministry of Education, Santiago, Chile
Nélida B. Inzunza
Affiliation:
Adventist University of Chile (Camino Tanilvoro S/N, Chillán, Chile) Loma Linda University, Loma Linda California 92350, USA
Enrique O. Bosch
Affiliation:
Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Service, German Clinic of Santiago, Santiago, Chile
*
*Corresponding author: Professor Daniza M. Ivanovic, present address Avda. Macul 5540, PO Box 138-11, Santiago, Chile, fax +56 2 221 4030, email inta8@abello.dic.uchile.cl
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the inter-relationships between nutritional status (past and current nutrition), brain development, and scholastic achievement (SA) of Chilean high-school graduates from high and low intellectual quotient (IQ) and socio-economic status (SES) (mean age 18·0 (SD 0·9) years). Results showed that independently of SES, high-school graduates with similar IQ have similar nutritional, brain development and SA variables. Multiple regression analysis between child IQ (dependent variable) and age, sex, SES, brain volume (BV), undernutrition during the first year of life, paternal and maternal IQ (independent variables) revealed that maternal IQ (P<0·0001), BV (P<0·0387) and severe undernutrition during the first year of life (P<0·0486), were the independent variables with the greatest explanatory power for child IQ variance (r2 0·707), without interaction with age, sex or SES. Child IQ (P<0·0001) was the only independent variable that explained both SA variance (r2 0·848) and academic aptitude test variance (r2 0·876) without interaction with age, sex or SES. These results confirm the hypotheses formulated for this study that: (1) independently of SES, high-school graduates with similar IQ have similar variables of nutritional status, brain development and SA; (2) past nutritional status, brain development, child IQ and SA are strongly and significantly inter-related. These findings are relevant in explaining the complex interactions between variables that affect IQ and SA and can be useful for nutritional and educational planning.

Keywords

Nutrition assessmentBrainEducationLearningIntelligenceSocio-economic factors
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 87 , Issue 1 , January 2002 , pp. 81 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2002

References

Alvarez, ML, Muzzo, S & Ivanovic, D (1985) Escala para medición del nivel socioeconómico en el área de la salud (Scale for measurement of socio-economic level, in the health area). Revista Médica de Chile 113, 243–249.Google Scholar
Andreasen, NC, Flaum, M, Swayze, V, O'Leary, DS, Alliger, R, Cohen, G, Ehrhardt, J & Yuh, WT (1993) Intelligence and brain structure in normal individuals. American Journal of Psychiatry 150, 130–134.Google Scholar
Bacharach, VR & Baumeister, AA (1998) Effects of maternal intelligence, marital status, income, and home environment on cognitive development of low birthweight infants. Pediatric Psychology 23, 197–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botting, N, Powls, A, Cooke, RW & Marlow, N (1998) Cognitive and educational outcome of very low-birth weight children in early adolescence. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 40, 652–660.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bouchard, TJ Jr (1998) Genetic and environmental influences on adult intelligence and special mental abilities. Human Biology 70, 257–279.Google Scholar
Broca, P (1861) Sur le volume et al forme du cerveau suivant les individus et suivant les races (About the volume and shape of the brain through individuals and races). Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 2, 139–207Google Scholar
Brown, L & Pollitt, E (1996) Malnutrition, poverty and intellectual development. Scientific American 274, 38–43.Google Scholar
Carter, RL, Resnick, MB, Ariet, M, Shieh, G & Vonesh, EF (1992) A random coefficient growth curve analysis of mental development in low-birth-weight infants. Statistics in Medicine 11, 243–256.Google Scholar
Casto, SD, DeFries, JC & Fulker, DW (1995) Multivariate genetic analysis of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised (WISC-R) factors. Behavior Genetics 25, 25–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chile Ministerio de Educación Pública (1996) Planes y Programas de Estudio para la Educación Media. Revista de Educación no. 225. Santiago: MINEDUC.Google Scholar
Cordero, ME, Acuña, E, Benveniste, S, Prado, R, Nuñez, JA & Colombo, M (1993) Dendritic development in neocortex of infants with early postnatal life undernutrition. Pediatric Neurology 9, 457–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crandell, LE & Hobson, RP (1999) Individual differences in young children's IQ: a social-developmental perspective. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 40, 455–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Desch, LW, Anderson, SK & Snow, JH (1990) Relationship of head circumference to measures of school performance. Clinical Pediatrics 29, 389–392.Google Scholar
Duncan, GJ, Brooks-Gunn, J & Klebanov, PK (1994) Economic deprivation and early childhood development. Child Development 65, 296–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisch, RO, Bilek, MK, Horrobin, JM & Chang, PN (1976) Children with superior intelligence at 7 years of age: a prospective study of the influence of perinatal, medical and socioeconomic factors. American Journal of Diseases of Children 130, 481–487.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization (1996) Sexta Encuesta Alimentaria Mundial (Sixth World Food Survey). Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Frisancho, AR (1981) New norms of upper limb fat and muscle areas for assessment of nutritional status. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 34, 2540–2545.Google Scholar
Frisancho, AR (1990) Anthropometric Standards for Assessment of Growth and Nutritional status, Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Galton, F (1888) Head growth in students at the University of Cambridge. Nature 38, 14–15.Google Scholar
Garrow, JS (1981) Treat Obesity Seriously: A Clinical Manual, London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Gecz, J & Mulley, J (2000) Genes for cognitive function: developments on the X. Genome Research 10, 157–163.Google Scholar
Gibson, R (1990) Principles of Nutritional Assessment, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grantham-McGregor, S (1995) A review of studies of the effect of severe malnutrition on mental development. Journal of Nutrition 125, 2233S–2238S.Google Scholar
Guilford, JP & Fruchter, B (1984) Estadística Aplicada a la Psicología y a la Educación (Fundamental statistics in psychology and education). México: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Guilford, JP & Fruchter, B (1984) Estadística Aplicada a la Psicología y a la Educación (Fundamental statistics in psychology and education). México: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Hack, M & Breslau, N (1986) Very low birth weight infants: effects of brain growth during infancy on intelligence quotient at 3 years of age. Pediatrics 77, 196–202.Google Scholar
Hack, M, Breslau, N, Weissman, B, Aram, D, Klein, N & Borawski, E (1991) Effect of very low birth weight and subnormal head size on cognitive abilities at school age. New England Journal of Medicine 325, 231–237.Google Scholar
Inzunza, N 2001 Interrelationship between nutrient intake and scholastic achievement of high school graduates from high and low socio-economic status: impact of mother's nutrition knowledge, MSC Thesis 2001 Loma Linda University, CA, USA:Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D (1996) Does undernutrition during infancy inhibit brain growth and subsequent intellectual development? Nutrition 12, 568–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Almagià, A, Toro, T, Castro, C, Pérez, H, Urrutia, MS, Cervilla, J, Bosch, E & Ivanovic, R (2000 c) Impacto del estado nutricional en el desarrollo cerebral, inteligencia y rendimiento escolar, en el marco de un enfoque multifactorial (Impact of nutritional status on brain development, intelligence and scholastic achievement in a multifactorial approach). La Educación (OEA) 44, 3–35.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Castro, CG & Ivanovic, R (1997) Conocimientos alimentarios y nutricionales de madres de escolares de educación básica y media de diferentes niveles socioeconómicos (Food and nutrition knowledge of school-age children's mothers from elementary and high school from different socio-economic levels). Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición 47, 248–255.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Forno, H & Ivanovic, R (2001) Estudio de la capacidad intelectual (Test de Matrices Progresivas de Raven) en escolares de 5 a 18 años. II. Interrelaciones con factores socioeconómicos, socioculturales, familiares, de exposición a medios de comunicación de masas, demográficos y educacionales (Intellectual ability study (Raven Progressive Matrices Test) in school-age children from 5 to 18 years. II. Inter-relationships with socio-economic, cultural, familiar, mass media exposure, demographic and educational factors). Revista de Psicología General y Aplicada 54, 443–466.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Ivanovic, R, Truffello, I & Buitrón, C (1989 a) Nutritional status and educational achievement of elementary first grade Chilean students. Nutrition Reports International 39, 163–175.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Leiva, B, Pérez, H, Inzunza, N, Almagià, A, Toro, T, Urrutia, MS, Cervilla, J & Bosch, E (2000 b) Long-term effects of severe undernutrition during the first year of life on brain development and learning in Chilean high school graduates. Nutrition 16, 1056–1063.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Olivares, M, Castro, C & Ivanovic, R (1995 a) Circunferencia craneana de escolares chilenos de 5 a 18 años (Head circumference in Chilean school children 5 to 18 years of age and socio-economic status). Región Metropolitana de Chile. 1986–1987, 1992. Revista Médica de Chile 123, 587–599.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, D, Olivares, M, Castro, C & Ivanovic, R (1996) Nutrition and learning in Chilean school-age children: Chile's Metropolitan Region. Survey 1986–1987. Nutrition 12, 321–328.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, R, Castro, C & Ivanovic, D (1995 b) No existe una teoría sobre el rendimiento escolar (It doesn't exist: a theory about scholastic achievement). Revista de Educación (Ministerio de Educación de Chile) 224, 40–45.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, R, Forno, H, Castro, CG & Ivanovic, D (2000 a) Intellectual ability and nutritional status assessed through anthropometric measurements of Chilean school-age children from different socioeconomic status. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 39, 1–25.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, R, Olivares, M & Ivanovic, D (1991) Sources of nutrition information of Chilean schoolers. Metropolitan Region. Chile Survey 1986–1987. Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición 41, 527–538.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, R, Truffello, I, Buitrón, C & Ivanovic, D (1989 b) Educational factors influencing the nutritional learning of elementary first grade Chilean schoolers. Nutrition Reports International 39, 1161–1166.Google Scholar
Jelliffe, DB (1966) The Assessment of the Nutritional Status of the Community, Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Jensen, A & Johnson, F (1994) Race and sex differences in head size and IQ. Intelligence 18, 309–333.Google Scholar
Johnson, FW (1991) Biological factors and psychometric intelligence: a review. Genetic, Social and General Psychology Monographs 117, 313–357.Google ScholarPubMed
Leiva, B, Inzunza, N, Pérez, H, Castro, V, Jansana, JM, Toro, T, Almagiyá, A, Navarro, A, Urrutia, MS, Cervilla, J & Ivanovic, D (2001) Algunas consideraciones sobre el impacto de la desnutrición en el desarrollo cerebral, inteligencia y rendimiento escolar (Some considerations related to the impact of undernutrition on brain development, intelligence and scholastic achievement). Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición 51, 64–71.Google Scholar
Levitsky, DA & Strupp, BJ (1995) Malnutrition and the brain: changing concepts, changing concerns. Journal of Nutrition 125, 2212S–2220S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynn, R (1993) Brain size and intelligence in man: a correction to Peters. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 47, 748–750.Google Scholar
Lynn, R & Hattori, K (1990) The heritability of intelligence in Japan. Behavior Genetics 20, 545–546.Google Scholar
McGue, M & Bouchard, TJ jr (1998) Genetic and environmental influences on human behavioral differences. Annual Review of Neuroscience 21, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matano, S & Nakano, Y (1998) Size comparison of the male and female human corpus callosum from autopsy samples. Zeitschrift fur Morphologie und Anthropologie 82, 67–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melhuish, EC, Lloyd, E, Martin, S & Mooney, A (1990) Type of childcare at 18 months. II. Relations with cognitive and language development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 31, 861–870.Google Scholar
Menkes, JH (1995) Texbook of Child Neurology, Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Nelson, KB & Deutschberger, J (1970) Head size at one year as a predictor of four-year IQ. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 12, 487–495.Google Scholar
Ounsted, M, Moar, VA & Scott, A (1988) Head circumference and developmental ability at the age of seven years. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica 77, 374–379.Google Scholar
Pennington, BF, Filipek, PA, Lefly, D, Chhabildas, N, Kennedy, DN, Simon, JH, Filley, CM, Galaburda, A & DeFries, JC (2000) A twin MRI study of size variations in human brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12, 223–232.Google Scholar
Peters, M, Jancke, L, Staiger, JF, Schlaug, G, Huang, Y & Stenmetz, H (1998) Unsolved problems in comparing brain sizes in homo sapiens. Brain and Cognition 37, 254–285.Google Scholar
Pollitt, E, Jahari, A & Walka, H (2000) A developmental view of the effects of an energy and micronutrient supplement in undernourished children in Indonesia. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54, S107–S113.Google Scholar
Pryor, J, Silva, PA & Brooke, M (1995) Growth, development and behaviour in adolescents born small-for-gestational-age. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 31, 403–407.Google Scholar
Reiss, Al, Abrams, MT, Singer, HS, Ross, JL & Denckla, MB (1996) Brain development, gender and IQ in children. A volumetric imaging study. Brain 119, 1763–1774.Google Scholar
Roche, AF, Mukherjee, D, Guo, S & Moore, W (1987) Head circumference reference data: birth to 18 years. Pediatrics 79, 706–712.Google Scholar
Rumsey, JM & Rapoport, JL (1983) Assessing behavioral and cognitive effects of diet in pediatric populations. In Nutrition and the Brain, pp. 101–161 [Wurtman, RJ and Wurtman, JJ, editors]. New York, NY: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Rushton, JP (2000) Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life-history Perspective, 2nd special abridged ed., Port Huron, MI: Charles Darwin Research Institute.Google Scholar
Rushton, JP & Ankney, CD (1996) Brain size and cognitive ability: Correlations with age, sex, social class, and race. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 3, 21–36.Google Scholar
Rushton, JP & Ankney, CD (2000) Size matters: A review and new analyses of racial differences in cranial capacity and intelligence that refute Kamin and Omari. Personality and Individual Differences 29, 591–620.Google Scholar
Sandiford, P, Cassel, J, Sanchez, G & Coldham, C (1997) Does intelligence account for the link between maternal literacy and child survival? Social Science and Medicine 45, 1231–1239.Google Scholar
Schoenemann, PT, Budinger, T, Sarich, V & Wang, W (2000) Brain size does not predict general cognitive ability within families. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA 97, 4932–4937.Google Scholar
Smith, KE, Landry, SH, Swank, PR, Baldwin, CD, Denson, SE & Wildin, S (1996) The relation of medical risk and maternal stimulation with preterm infants' development of cognitive, language and daily living skills. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 37, 855–864.Google Scholar
Sorensen, HT, Sabroe, S, Olsen, J, Rothman, KJ, Gillman, MW & Fisher, P (1999) Birth weight as a predictor of young men's intelligence. A historical cohort study. Ugeskrift for Laeger 161, 791–793.Google Scholar
Stoch, MB & Smythe, PM (1963) Does undernutrition during infancy inhibit brain growth and subsequent intellectual development? Archives of Disease in Childhood 38, 546–552.Google Scholar
Stoch, MB & Smythe, PM (1967) The effect of undernutrition during infancy on subsequent brain growth and intellectual development. South African Medical Journal 41, 1027–1030.Google Scholar
Stoch, MB & Smythe, PM (1976) 15-year developmental study on effects of severe undernutrition during infancy on subsequent physical growth and intellectual functioning. Archives of Disease in Childhood 51, 327–336.Google Scholar
Stoch, MB, Smythe, PM, Moodie, AD & Bradshaw, D (1982) Psychosocial outcome and CT findings after gross undernourishment during infancy: a 20-year developmental study. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 24, 419–436.Google Scholar
Strauss, RS & Dietz, WH (1998) Growth and development of term children born with low birth weight: effects of genetic and environmental factors. Journal of Pediatrics 133, 67–72.Google Scholar
Susanne, C (1979) On the relationship between psychometric and anthropometric traits. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 51, 421–424.Google Scholar
Teplin, SW, Burchinal, M, Johnson-Martin, N, Humphry, RA & Kraybill, EN (1991) Neurodevelopmental, health and growth status at age 6 years of children with birth weights less than 1001 grams. Journal of Pediatrics 118, 768–777.Google Scholar
Toro, T, Almagià, A & Ivanovic, D (1998) Evaluación antropométrica y rendimiento escolar en estudiantes de educación media de Valparaíso Chile (Anthropometric assessment and school achievement in school-age children from high school in Valparaiso, Chile). Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición 48, 201–209.Google Scholar
Tramo, MJ, Loftus, WC, Stukel, TA, Green, RL, Weaver, JB & Gazzaniga, MS (1998) Brain size, head size, and intelligence in monozygotic twins. Neurology 50, 1246–1252.Google Scholar
Udani, PM (1992) Protein energy malnutrition (PEM), brain and various facets of child development. Indian Journal of Pediatrics 59, 165–186.Google Scholar
United Nations International Children's Fund (1994) Una Propuesta de' Clasificación de las Comunas del País Según la situación de la Infancia (A proposal to classify Chilean districts by infancy situation). Santiago: UNICEF.Google Scholar
United Nations International Children's Fund (1998) Estado Mundial de la Infancia (Infancy World Situation). New York, NY: UNICEF.Google Scholar
van Valen, L (1974) Brain size and intelligence in man. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 40, 417–424.Google Scholar
Vernon, PA, Wickett, JC, Bazana, PG & Stelmack, RM (2000) The neuropsychology and psychophysiology of human intelligence. In Handbook of Intelligence, [Sternberg, RJ, editor]. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weaver, DD & Cristian, JC (1980) Familial variation of head size and adjustment for parental head circumference. Journal of Pediatrics 96, 990–994.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D (1981) Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised, New York, NY: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Wickett, JC, Vernon, PA & Lee, DH (2000) Relationships between factors of intelligence and brain volume. Personality and Individual Differences 29, 1095–1122.Google Scholar
Willerman, L, Schultz, R, Rutledge, JN & Bigler, ED (1991) In vivo brain size and intelligence. Intelligence 15, 223–228.Google Scholar
Winick, M & Rosso, P (1969 a) Head circumference and cellular growth of the brain in normal and marasmic children. Journal of Pediatrics 74, 774–778.Google Scholar
Winick, M & Rosso, P (1969 b) The effect of severe early malnutrition on cellular growth of human brain. Pediatric Research 3, 181–184.Google Scholar
Winick, M (1975) Nutrition and brain development. In Nutrition and mental functions, pp. 65–73 [Serban, G, editor]. New York, NY: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1980) Measurement of the Nutritional Impact of Supplementation Food Programs to Vulnerable Groups. FAP/79.1, Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar