Poor socioeconomic state, stress, stunting and fatness are negatively associated with cognitive performance of female adolescents

Introduction: The brain undergoes dynamic structural and maturational changes during adolescence, producing significant changes in cognition and behaviour. Cognitive performance (CP) of an individual is influenced by many factors, nutritional, psychosocial and genetic.

Objectives: To determine the influence of nutritional and psychosocial factors on CP of early female adolescents in Sri Lanka.

Method: Two hundred and eighteen female adolescents, 11-14 years of age, were administered neurocognitive test batteries comprising tests of nonverbal intelligence, subtests of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and two computer based executive function tests to assess CP. Height for age Z-score (HAZ), weight for age Z-score (WAZ) and BMI for age Z-score (BAZ) were calculated to measure nutritional status. Adolescent stress questionnaire (ASQ) was used to assess stress.

Results: Fat mass percentage was inversely associated with working memory index (WMI) (r=- 0.34; p<0.001) and processing speed index (PSI) (r=-0.39; p<0.001). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the combination of socioeconomic status (SES) index, HAZ and ASQ total score significantly predicts estimated full scale intelligence quota (EFSIQ). SES index was positively correlated with verbal comprehension index (VCI) (r=0.36; p<0.01), working memory index (WMI) (r=0.30; p<0.01), EFSIQ (r=0.31; p<0.01), perceptual reasoning index (PRI) (r=0.27; p<0.01), PSI (r=0.20; p<0.01) and visuo-spatial working memory (r=0.17; p<0.05).

Conclusions: Poor socioeconomic state, stress, stunting and fatness were negatively linked with cognitive performance of female adolescents.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2021; 50(4): 674-680