associations between diet quality, weight status and academic performance in senior high-school students in tehran

Background and objectives: to study associations in diet quality academic performance and weight status in urban adolescent high-school students. materials and methods: this study was a cross-sectional study in high schools in tehran, iran. a total of 629 students (317 boys and 309 girls), aging 17–19 years, from 49 high schools participated in the study. dietary intake was measured using two 24-h recalls. diet quality was measured using healthy eating index-2015. academic performance was assessed by evaluating scores achieved in national exams at the end of high-school junior year. standard anthropometric measurements were used. linear and multinomial regressions were used to assess the associations between weight status, diet quality and academic performance. results: student’s scores in grammar and literature were significantly associated to diet quality (p < 0.05). after adjusting for sex and other socioeconomic confounders, the association was non-significant. significant differences were seen in weight status between boys and girls; however, such differences were not based on the prosperity levels in weight statuses. the overall frequency of overweight was nearly 24%, while obesity was twice in boys (nearly 26%), compared to girls. conclusions: findings verify needs of policies to improve student diet quality, leading to better health and educational achievements. further studies are needed to investigate associations between diet quality and academic performance.