New York, Dec 22 (PTI) Children who eat fish at leastonce a week sleep better and have higher IQs, a studysuggests.
For the research, a cohort of 541 9-to 11-year-olds, 54per cent boys and 46 per cent girls, completed aquestionnaire about how often they consumed fish in the pastmonth, with options ranging from "never" to "at least once perweek."The participants also took an IQ test which examinedverbal and non-verbal skills such as vocabulary and coding.
Their parents then answered questions about sleep qualityusing the standardised Children Sleep Habits Questionnaire,which included topics such as sleep duration and frequency ofnight waking or daytime sleepiness.
Finally, the researchers from the University ofPennsylvania in the US controlled for demographic information,including parental education, occupation and marital statusand number of children in the home.
Analysing these data points, the researchers found thatchildren who reported eating fish weekly scored 4.8 pointshigher on the IQ exams than those who said they "seldom" or"never" consumed fish.
Those whose meals sometimes included fish scored 3.3points higher, according to the study published in the journalScientific Reports.
In addition, increased fish consumption was associatedwith fewer disturbances of sleep, which the researchers sayindicates better overall sleep quality.
"It adds to the growing body of evidence showing thatfish consumption has really positive health benefits andshould be something more heavily advertised and promoted,"said Jianghong Liu, from the University of Pennsylvania.
"Children should be introduced to it early on," Liuadded. PTI SNESNE.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.