CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 150Obesity, Physical Activity, DietPhysical Activity and HealthHealth and Lifestyle Studies

The combined impact of diet, physical activity, sleep and screen time on academic achievement: A prospective study of elementary school students in Nova Scotia, Canada

Open access
Faught, Erin L., Ekwaru, John P., Gleddie, Douglas, Storey, Kate E., Asbridge, Mark, Veugelers, Paul J.·2017·International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
DOI 10.1186/s12966-017-0476-0PMC PMC5343372
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Few studies have investigated the independent associations of lifestyle behaviors (diet, physical activity, sleep, and screen time) and body weight status with academic achievement. Even fewer have investigated the combined effect of these behaviors on academic achievement. We hypothesize that the combined effect of these behaviors will have a higher impact on academic achievement than any behavior alone, or that of body weight status. METHODS: In 2011, 4253 grade 5 (10-11 years old) students and their parents were surveyed about the child's diet, physical activity, screen time and sleep. Students' heights and weights were measured by research assistants. Academic achievement was measured using provincial standardized exams in mathematics, reading and writing, and was expressed as 'meeting' or 'not meeting' expectations as per standardized criterion. Exams were written 1 year following the measurement of lifestyle behaviors. Lifestyle behaviors were measured with self- and parental proxy reports and expressed as meeting recommendations (yes/no) for each behavior. Mixed effects logistic regression models adjusting for demographic confounders and caloric intake were used to determine the independent and combined associations. RESULTS: Meeting dietary recommendations was associated with increased likelihood of meeting academic expectations for each of math, reading and writing. Meeting recommendations for screen time and sleep was associated with meeting expectations for writing. For all three subjects, meeting additional lifestyle behavior recommendations was associated with higher likelihood of meeting expectations. Children who met 7-9 lifestyle behavior recommendations had greater than three-times the odds of meeting expectations for reading compared to those who met 0-3 recommendations (OR: 3.07, 95% CI: 2.09, 4.51), and 1.47 and 2.77 times the odds of meeting expectations in mathematics and writing, respectively. Body weight status was not associated with academic achievement. CONCLUSIONS: We found that lifestyle behaviors, not body weight status, are strongly associated with student academic performance. Promoting compliance with established healthy lifestyle recommendations could improve both the health and educational outcomes of school-aged children. School-based health promotion initiatives that target multiple lifestyle behaviors may have a greater effect on academic achievement than those that focus on a single behavior.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/s12966-017-0476-0

Cites

59 of 59 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • No prospective study has examined if the combination of several lifestyle habits may predict cognitive control and academic performance during adolescence.

    “no prospective study has examined if the combination of several lifestyle habits such as screen time, studying time, employment status as well as eating and sleeping habits may predict cognitive control and academic performance during adolescence [41,42].”

    From Lifestyle Habits Predict Academic Performance in High School Students: The Adolescent Student Academic Performance Longitudinal Study (ASAP) (2019) · cites this paper as [42]

    The Background (page unavailable) says only two prior studies had examined combined lifestyle behaviors and academic achievement, including one involving adolescents. That supports a limited research gap, but it does not establish that no prospective study had examined both cognitive control and academic performance during adolescence. This paper's prospective analysis concerns elementary school students and does not assess cognitive control. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [27]World Health Organization Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children 2015 Geneva World Health Organization 25905159

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Faught, E. L., Ekwaru, J. P., Gleddie, D., Storey, K. E., Asbridge, M., & Veugelers, P. J.
Affiliations
  • University of Alberta (CA)
  • Dalhousie University (CA)
Corresponding author
Veugelers, Paul J.
ORCID
Venue
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-03-09
Volume
14
Issue
1
Pages
29-29
ISSN
1479-5868 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12966-017-0476-0
PMC
PMC5343372
OpenAlex
W2594686157
Cited by
150
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 5
FWCI
15.38
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions (CA) (201300671)
  • Women and Children's Health Research Institute (CA)
  • Canada Research Chairs
  • Alberta Research Chair
  • Institute of Population and Public Health (93860)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
Keywords
academic performance, diet, physical activity, sleep, screen time, lifestyle habits, weight status, elementary school students, school health promotion, child health, Nova Scotia
MeSH terms
Achievement, Body Weight, Child, Diet, Educational Status, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Life Style, Male, Nova Scotia, Parents, Prospective Studies, Sleep, Students, Television, Exercise

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review