Abstract
There is a strong emphasis on achieving optimal health through nutrition by students, however, many students tend to care less about their nutritional requirements. A study was conducted to assess dietary practices and their effects on the academic performance of high school students in Ghana. The study hypothesized that dietary diversity has a significant influence on the academic performance of high school students. A cross-sectional analytical survey design was used. A sample of 800 students was randomly selected from five randomly selected senior high schools in Tamale Metropolis. A questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, t-test, and ANOVA at 0.05 probability level were used in the data analysis with SPSS computer software. The results indicated that breakfast was the most skipped meal, an average of three days a week. Dietary diversity was high among the students, 83.2% consumed six or more different groups of foods within the past 7 days. The majority of the students were from moderate (42.0%) and mild (32.8%) food insecure households. The age of the students, household size, and parents’ employment status significantly (p<0.05) affected the dietary diversity of the students. Higher dietary diversity was significantly (p<0.05) correlated with English language (r = 0.119) and social studies (r = 0.184) scores, while it had no significant relationship with mathematics and science scores. In conclusion, dietary diversity impacts the reading scores of students. Therefore, students must be diverse in their food intake for better performance.