[ evaluation of breakfast intake pattern and short-term memory status in junior secondary school students in Shiraz, 2007]

ABSTRACT

Nutritional factors, especially breakfast can have some effects on children's learning, educational improvement and memory. Nutrients, such as niacin, folic acid, cobalamine etc. can have effect on short-term memory via several mechanisms. This study was conducted to evaluate breakfast intake pattern and short-term memory status in junior secondary school students in Shiraz. In this cross-sectional study, a total number of 150 girl students were randomly selected from four secondary schools in Shiraz. The students were asked to fill out the socio-economic questionnaires as well as food frequency questionnaires for breakfast. They were provided by three-day breakfast and their short-term memories were evaluated by Weksler test. Socio-economic conditions and dietary intakes were analyzed using ANOVA test. The results of this study showed that there was no correlation between parents job, students mean age and their school grades with their memory scores. Dietary analysis demonstrated a negative correlation between local soup consumption in breakfast and memory scores. Food record analysis showed no correlation between fat, cholesterol, protein, vitamin B6, B12, calorie or iodine intake in breakfast and memory scores, but there was a positive correlation between carbohydrate, iron and vitamin B3 intake in breakfast and memory scores, similarly there was a positive correlation between B12 intake in the breakfast and students' average school grades during the year. Adequate breakfast with lesser lipid and meat and higher carbohydrate, Fe2+ and vitamin B3 can have important role to improve short-term memory