Abstract
Fish consumption has shown its benefits for cognitive functioning in the elderly or
children with disorders (e.g., autism, ADHD), but has rarely been investigated in
relation to cognitive performance and school performance of healthy adolescents. We
executed an observational study in 700 Dutch high school students aged 12–18 years.
Fish consumption data, end term grades, scores on the Amsterdam Vocabulary Test, and
scores on the Youth Self-Report were collected. Results revealed that 13.6% of the
Dutch adolescents never ate fish, 6.4% met national guidelines, 16.9% reached half
of the norm, and 63.1% did eat fish but too little to meet at least half of the norm.
Analysis of variance, controlled for relevant covariates, showed significant differences
between the four fish consumption groups in vocabulary (p=.05). A trend for significance was found for end term grades (p=.07). Contrast analyses demonstrated significant quadratic associations between fish
consumption and vocabulary (p=.01) and end term grades (p=.01). Thus higher fish intake was associated with more advanced vocabulary and higher
end term grades. However, eating more fish than the described norm seemed no longer
beneficial.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 24, 2012
Accepted:
January 4,
2012
Received in revised form:
December 15,
2011
Received:
July 25,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
