title: The effects of dietary habits on Iranian students' school performance, a pilot cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether dietary habits in Iranian secondary school students have any effect on an individual's performance in school.
  
  
  METHODS
  The observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran during the 2010-11 academic year. Standardised Graduate Point Average was used as school performance. A validated nationalised nutritional questionnaire, designed by an expert committee, was filled by each student. Data was analysed using SPSS 16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The age of the 96 male high school students ranged betweeen 16 and 17 years, with the mean of 16.65 +/- 0.3 years. Of the total, 50 (52.1%) students had negative and 46 (47.9%) had positive standardised GPA. The average score of the questionnaire for the students in the positive group was significantly higher than the others (26.3 vs. 21.04) (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Poor school performance in Iranian secondary school students was in relation with poor dietary habits.
authors.affiliation: Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors.forename: Sirous
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tayebi
authors.affiliation: Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors.forename: Ata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pourabbasi
authors.affiliation: Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahbubeh Ebrahimnegad
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Shirvani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013334:Students; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis