Nutritional Supplementation A Simple Way for Better Cognition

Highlights :

• Undernutrition in preschool kids (3-to-5 years old) can impair their cognitive skills.
• A combined nutritional and psychosocial intervention can significantly improve the cognitive abilities of young kids.
• The intervention can also help reduce attention-related problems in young kids.

Synopsis¹ :

All nutrients are essential for brain development and function in young children. Micronutrients like minerals, vitamins, and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), are mainly associated with cognitive development. An inadequate supply of these nutrients results in undernutrition in young kids, which can further lead to impaired cognitive skills.

This Journal Watch summarizes a study entitled "A Combined Dietary and Cognitive Intervention in 3-5-Year-Old Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial," published in the journal Nutrients.¹

Need for the study²

Adequate diet and psychosocial stimulation are essential for good cognitive growth. Unfortunately, the lack of both these factors in developing nations results in poor cognitive potential in children below the age of five. Several studies report that nutritional and psychosocial interventions at preschool age can have cognitive benefits. However, the study population in these reports is malnourished and/or stunted kids. Therefore, in this study, the researchers determined the impact of a combined nutritional and low-level psychosocial stimulation on the cognitive skills of healthy preschool Indonesian kids.

Study objective²

To assess the cognitive benefits of intervention with nutritional and psychosocial stimulation in healthy children having low psychosocial stimulation and low educational background.

Study design²

Experimental design²

Study outcomes²

Key findings²

• Growth (weight and height) and nutritional (hydroxyproline index) status values were not statistically different between the two groups at baseline and six months.
• At 2 and 6 months, parents in the control group reported a greater increase in time spent per day playing with their child at home than parents in the experimental group (p < 0.05).
• Full-scale IQ composite scores of children in the experimental group increased significantly compared to the control group (p < 0.05). (Figure 1)
• There was a significant reduction in attention-related problems in children from the experimental group vs. the control group (p < 0.05). (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Differences in cognitive abilities and child behavior between the experimental and the control groups after six months of intervention. (a) Full-scale IQ composite score from WPPSI-IV (b) Attention problems from CBCL 1.5–5- parental reports. Data are represented as LS mean ± standard error. (WPPSI-IV: Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, 4th edition; CBCL: Child Behavior Checklist)