THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY STATUS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY IN THE NORTH-WEST OF IRAN

Background and Aim: Education is a crucial social determinant of health. Food insecurity (FI) is a multidimensional phenomenon associated with poor physical, cognitive, and emotional health in all age populations. In order to investigate the impact of household food insecurity on high school students, we investigated the relationship between food insecurity and academic achievement. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015-2016. The study population consisted of 480 high school students (277 boys and 203 girls) and their family. The subjects were randomly selected from high schools located in the city of Bostan-Abad, East Azerbaijan province in the north-west part of Iran. Levels of FI were measured using 18-item household food security survey module. Also, the participants were asked to provide their last year’s Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA range was from 0.00 to 20.00 scores.Results: The prevalence of household FI according to the USDA food security questionnaire was 48.3%: 25.8% were food insecure without hunger, 14.6% were food insecure with moderate hunger and 7.9% were food insecure with severe hunger. There was significant difference between student’s GPA among secure and insecure groups (p<0.001). The students in food insecure group had low GPA compared to the secure one.Conclusion: The results suggest the need for policies and programs to improve students’ dietary quality and food security to improve their health as well as educational attainment. Future research is essential to examine further the relationship between food security and academic performance.

کلیدواژه ها:

food security ، academic achievement ، high school ، students ، Iran