Nutritional status and academic performance among pupils in a selected elementary school in the second district of Iloilo

Abstract

The Philippines is facing challenges when it comes to eating right and staying healthy. Save the Children's research reveals that a staggering 1.5 million Filipino children have to go without food for an entire day, and one out of every four of them sometimes misses meals at school. The Department of Education paints an even grimmer picture, suggesting that as many as 1.8 million children across the nation are struggling because they are not getting enough food. This study aimed to understand how kids in Grades 4-6 were doing in school and how they were feeling health-wise. The focus was on a specific elementary school in the second district of Iloilo province. The researchers investigated to find out if there was a connection between how well the students were doing academically and what they were eating. Additionally, this study intended to look into factors like age, gender, or overall health might have something to do with how they were performing in school. Nutritional status was calculated using the World Health Organization's Body Mass Index (BMI), while academic achievement was assessed using self-reported grades among respondents, with researchers generating a general average from these responses. Demographic examination of 187 primary school students indicated diverse age groupings, with 10-year-olds accounting for the majority (31.0%) of the sample. The gender breakdown favored males slightly (57.2%). The majority of students had a normal nutritional state (68.4%), whereas a smaller minority were overweight (11.8%), severely wasted (9.6%), wasted (9.6%), or obese (0.5%). Academic performance varied greatly, with 39.0% of pupils scoring above 89, indicating a focus on higher grades. The researchers discovered no significant link between age or gender and nutritional status. However, there was a moderate inverse association between age and academic achievement, indicating that older children performed slightly worse academically. Notably, nutritional status had a strong relationship with academic achievement, highlighting the need of addressing dietary aspects in educational interventions to enhance results for Filipino children.