Normal cognitive development requires access to good and safe nutrition

Objectives:
Malnutrition is a major public health issue that has been associated with high susceptibility for impaired brain development and mental functioning. However, to date studies on this topic have not been collated and appraised. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.

Is malnutrition associated with a poor cognitive development?

Study design:
This review article included 12 studies comprising 7,607 participants aged 1 to 12 years.

Results and conclusions:
The investigators found children with malnutrition had worse scores than controls for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale [SMD = -0.40, 95% CI = -0.60 to -0.20, p 0.0001, I2 = 77.1%], the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices [SMD = -3.75, 95% CI = -5.68 to -1.83, p 0.0001, I2 = 99.2%], visual processing [SMD = -0.85, 95% CI = -1.23 to -0.46, p = 0.009, I2 = 11.0%] and short memory [SMD = 0.85, 95% CI = -1.21 to -0.49, p 0.0001, I2 = 0%] tests.

The investigators concluded that normal cognitive development requires access to good and safe nutrition.

Original title:
Systematic review and meta-analysis found that malnutrition was associated with poor cognitive development by Pizzol D, Tudor F, […], Smith L.

Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34077582/

Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on RCTs/cohort/significantly/review article and malnutrition right here.