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Health Education Research Advance Access published online on June 9, 2006
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cyl044
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received January 13, 2006
Accepted April 20, 2006

Original article

Health behaviour and academic achievement in Icelandic school children

Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir 1 *, Álfgeir Logi Kristjánsson 1, and John P. Allegrante 2

1 Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis, School of Health and Education, Reykjavik University, Ofanleiti 2, 103 Reykjavík, Iceland
2 Department of Health and Behavior Studies and Center for Health Promotion, Teachers College, and Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir, E-mail: ingadora{at}ru.is


  Abstract

Interest in the relationship between health behaviours and academic achievement has recently intensified in the face of an epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity and converging school reforms in the United States and other nations with advanced economies. Epidemiologic research has demonstrated that poor diet and lack of adequate physical activity place children at risk for being overweight and obese and thus influence future health status. Additional research has also shown that children and adolescents whose diets are nutritious and whose participation in physical activity is high tend to perform better on various measures of cognitive performance and academic achievement. We analysed cross-sectional survey data from 5810 Icelandic school children to explore the relationship between selected health behaviours and academic achievement. Body mass index, diet and physical activity explained up to 24% (P < 0.01) of the variance in academic achievement when controlling for gender, parental education, family structure and absenteeism. Variance explained increases to 27% when depressed mood (P < 0.05) and self-esteem (P < 0.01) are added to the model, but confounds the role of physical activity. Although not robust, these findings are consistent with previous work and affirm the complexity of the relationship of health to academic achievement.


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