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Attention capacity in European adolescents: role of different health-related factors. The HELENA study

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Abstract

We compared the level of attention capacity between adolescents from the center and south of Europe. The study included 627 European adolescents (54% girls), aged 12.5–17.5 years, who participated in the HELENA Study. The d2 Test of Attention was administered to assess attention capacity. The main results showed that adolescents from the south of Europe had significantly higher score in attention capacity compared with adolescents from central Europe (score + 8.1; 95%CI, 2.44–13.61) after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic indicators, body mass index, cardiorespiratory fitness and diet quality index (p = 0.012).

Conclusion: Adolescents from the south of Europe had higher levels of attention capacity than their counterparts from central Europe independently of sociodemographic and health-related factors. These differences should be taken into account by educational institutions when promoting new approaches for putting into the practice student’s capacities.

What is Known?

• Attention is a crucial capacity during adolescence.

• Several health-related factors (i.e., physical activity, fitness or fatness) may influence attention capacity in adolescents.

What is New?

• Adolescents from the south of Europe had higher levels of attention capacity than their counterparts from the center, after accounting for socioeconomic factors, fitness, fatness and quality of diet.

• These differences should be taken into account by educational institutions when promoting new approaches for putting into the practice student’s capacities.

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Fig. 1

Abbreviations

BMI:

body mass index

d2T:

d2 Test of Attention

FAS:

family affluence scale

PISA:

Programme for International Student Assessment

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank children and adolescents who participated in the study and their parents and teachers for their collaboration. We also acknowledge the members involved in field work for their efforts.

Funding

The HELENA study is made possible by the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT 20056007034) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2010-05957 and RYC-2011-09011). IEC was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FJCI-2014-19,563) and received a scholarship from the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation for a brief stay in the Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Australia. This study takes place thanks to the additional funding from the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PROFITH “PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity” Research Group, Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Camino de Alfacar s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Irene Esteban-Cornejo, Cristina Cadenas-Sanchez & Francisco B. Ortega

  2. University of Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, U995 - LIRIC - Lille Inflammation Research International Center, CIC 1403 - Centre d’investigation clinique, F-59000, Lille, France

    Jérémy Vanhelst

  3. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Hospital, Ghent University, 4K3, De Pintelaan 185, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Nathalie Michels

  4. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University of Athens, Venizelou 70, Ave. Kallithea, Athens, Greece

    Christina-Paulina Lambrinou

  5. ImFINE Research Group, Department of Health and Human Performance, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences-INEF, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Marcela González-Gross

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Paracelsus Private Medical University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Kurt Widhalm

  7. Research Department Child Nutrition, Pediatric University Clinic, Bochum, Germany

    Mathilde Kersting

  8. Department of Medical Physiology School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Alejandro de la O Puerta

  9. Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Unit, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece

    Anthony Kafatos

  10. GENUD (Growth, Exercise, Nutrition, and Development) Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón) and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERObn), Zaragoza, Spain

    Luis A. Moreno

  11. Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden

    Francisco B. Ortega

Authors
  1. Irene Esteban-Cornejo
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  2. Cristina Cadenas-Sanchez
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  3. Jérémy Vanhelst
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  4. Nathalie Michels
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  5. Christina-Paulina Lambrinou
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  6. Marcela González-Gross
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  7. Kurt Widhalm
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  8. Mathilde Kersting
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  9. Alejandro de la O Puerta
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  10. Anthony Kafatos
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  11. Luis A. Moreno
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  12. Francisco B. Ortega
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Consortia

on behalf of the HELENA study group

Contributions

IEC had full access to all of the data in the study. Study concept and design: LAM, FBO, CCS, and IEC. Acquisition of data: JV, NM, CPL, MGG, KW, and MK. Statistical analysis: FBO, CCS, and IEC. Interpretation of data: FBO, CCS, IEC, AOP, and AK. Drafting of the manuscript: IEC. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irene Esteban-Cornejo.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Communicated by Mario Bianchetti

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Cite this article

Esteban-Cornejo, I., Cadenas-Sanchez, C., Vanhelst, J. et al. Attention capacity in European adolescents: role of different health-related factors. The HELENA study. Eur J Pediatr 176, 1433–1437 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-017-3000-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-017-3000-2

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