Overweight and obesity leads to poor school performance

The problem of overweight and obesity is growing among school children, therefore, it becomes important to understand the impact of increased body weight on their academic performance. This paper summarises several research studies published in the past 10 years (2003 to 2013) to examine the effect of overweight and obesity on academic performance in school aged children (5-18 years). Results from the studies indicated that overweight and obese children had lower test score in Math and reading as well as poorer school performance compared to normal weight status children. Hence, children should be encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyle choices in order to curb the problem of obesity, thereby improving not only health outcomes but also their school performance.