title: [The relationship of long-term school milk consumption and their attention, cognitive ability among children].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the status of attention and cognitive ability among children who consumed school milk for relative long-term period.
  
  
  METHODS
  From July to August 2009, a cluster of 435 children aged 10-12 year-old (including 188 boys and 247 girls) were sampled in Changsha, Hunan Province and divided into two groups, which were long-term milk-consumption group (the children drank school milk four times per week and continued for over one year or one to three times per week and continued for over three years, 220 cases) and seldom milk-consumption group (the others, 215 cases). Children's growth and anemia status were evaluated, the mental work ability index (IMC) was evaluated by Alimov searching table and both the attention and memory function of children were evaluated by clinical memory scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average height, hemoglobin (Hb) concentration and anemia rate in long term milk-consumed group were (147.6 ± 8.1) cm, (40.1 ± 9.0) g/L and 7.1% (15/212), and the indexes of the seldom milk-consumed group were (145.9 ± 8.3) cm, (38.7 ± 10.0) g/L and 13.3% (27/203). There were significant statistical differences (t = 2.124, 2.621; χ(2) = 4.418, all P values < 0.05). The scores of the third IMC in the long term milk-consumed group (233.6 ± 44.1) were higher than the seldom milk-consumed group (222.8 ± 42.3), (t = 2.505, P < 0.05). The scores of picture free recall (14.7 ± 5.0) and memory quotient (86.7 ± 17.2) were higher than that in the seldom milk-consumed group (13.4 ± 4.8 and 82.7 ± 16.1 respectively) (t = 2.539, 2.433; all P values < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Drinking milk for long-term can help increasing attention and memory of children.
authors.affiliation: Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Changsha 410005, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Wei-Lin
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xian-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Shi-An
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Yin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D003611:Dairy Products; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008892:Milk; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*