Under nutrition as a predictor of poor academic performance; the case of Nekemte primary schools students, Western Ethiopia.

A total of 362 schoolchildren and their parents were involved in the study. The study involved interviewing the participants and their parents, anthropometric measurement of participants and their document review. The prevalence of stunting and underweight was 30.2% and 45.9% respectively. Of the total study participants, 32.2% of them were poor in academic achievement. Variables like Being underweight (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.57; 95% Confidence interval (CI) 0.23-0.82), Skipping breakfast (AOR: 2.1; 95% CI 1.42-5.76), stunting (AOR: 0.66; 95% CI 0.12-0.93), being male (AOR: 2.8; 95% CI 1.79-4.52), participants whom mothers didn't attend formal education (AOR: 0.62; 95% CI 0.37-0.92) were significantly associated with academic performance. Thus, Modifiable factors like under nutrition should be a great concern to improve the overall achievement of children in schooling.