The Relationship between Nutrition in Infancy and Cognitive Performance during Adolescence
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to investigate the long-term associations between breastfeeding duration during infancy, diet quality as measured by a diet score at 1 year of age, and cognitive performance during adolescence. METHODS: Participants (n = 717) were recruited from the West Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, a prospective longitudinal study of 2868 children and their families based in Perth, WA, Australia. Breastfeeding duration and an early diet score at age 1 year were used as the main predictor variables, while a computerized cognitive battery (CogState) was used to assess adolescents' cognitive performance at 17 years. The diet score, which has seven food group components, was based on a 24-h recall questionnaire completed by the mother at 1 year of age. A higher diet score represents a better, more nutritious eating pattern. Associations between breastfeeding duration, diet score, and cognitive performance were assessed in multivariable regression models. RESULTS: Higher diet scores at 1 year representing better diet quality were significantly associated with faster reaction times in cognitive performance at 17 years [Detection Task (DET): β = -0.004, 95% CI: -0.008; 0.000, p = 0.036; Identification Task (IDN): β = -0.004, 95% CI: -0.008; 0.000, p = 0.027]. Breastfeeding duration (≥4 months) was also significantly associated with a shorter reaction time, but only for males (DET: β = -0.026, 95% CI: -0.046; -0.006, p = 0.010). CONCLUSION: Nutrition in early childhood may have a long-term association with fundamental cognitive processing speed, which is likely to be related to enhanced brain development in the first year of life.
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Particular consumption of high-fat and/or high-sugar during pregnancy, childhood and adolescence can result in structural changes in the PFC and deficits in executive functioning.
“Particular consumption of high-fat and/or high-sugar during pregnancy, childhood and adolescence can result in structural changes in the PFC and deficits in executive functioning [308–311].”
From Development of prefrontal cortex (2022) · cites this paper as [310]
The Results and Discussion (page unavailable) link diet quality at age one with adolescent reaction time and attention; the diet score includes snack foods and soft drinks. The paper does not show that high-fat or high-sugar consumption during pregnancy, childhood, or adolescence changes PFC structure or causes executive-function deficits. Its Discussion explicitly says the observational study cannot establish causality. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Development of prefrontal cortex
Kolk, S. M., & Rakic, P. (2022) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9 · Cited by 378 · see citing works
- Authors
- Nyaradi, A., Oddy, W. H., Hickling, S., Li, J., & Foster, J. K.
- Affiliations
- The Kids Research Institute Australia (AU)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Nyaradi, Anett
- Venue
- Frontiers in Nutrition
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2015-02-11
- Volume
- 2
- Pages
- 2-2
- ISSN
- 2296-861X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4451795
- OpenAlex
- W2006075129
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 3.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Nutrition (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) (submittedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- eSpace (Curtin University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Raine Medical Research Foundation
- Curtin University of Technology
- Edith Cowan University
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Breastfeeding Practices and Influences
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Keywords
- breastfeeding duration, early childhood nutrition, cognitive performance, reaction time, processing speed, adolescence, brain development, sex differences, Raine Study
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