Relationship Between School Performance and Breakfast Quality in Refugee Children: Case Study of Mardin Region

Abstract

Background: Many studies have found that the academic success of school-age children is proved to be in close relation with regular and healthy nutrition. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationship between breakfast quality and academic success of refugee primaryschool children. Methods: After scanning 24 schools in the city center, 384 students who were refugee Syrians from primary schools in Mardin city center were included. In addition to the demographic characteristics of the individuals, breakfast habits of these students were investigated. Results: In this study, 91.6% of the children stated that they have breakfast habits. The reasons for skipping breakfast among students of all levels can be listed as being late for school (67.8%) and not liking to have breakfast (18.8%). The breakfast quality index (BQI) score was low in both boys and girls and all age groups. According to this marked value, all age groups had poor nutrition in terms of breakfast. Although girls showed a significant difference in all age groups (P = 0.046), this difference was not significant among boys (P = 0.671). The number of students with a breakfast quality score higher than 8 was very low. It was observed that boys had the highest academic success with the lowest breakfast quality score. The breakfast quality score of girls with the best academic success ranged between 4 - 7 points. Conclusions: It was observed that academic success was linked to having breakfast habit, and students had breakfast habit performed relatively better in school compared to those who did not.