Fast Food Consumption and Its Relation with Attention Span and Memory Retention in School Children

To study the relationship of fast food consumption with attention span and memory retention, a total of 240 school children aged 13-15 years with frequent consumption of fast food were selected from three private and three government schools of Ludhiana city. The data on general information and demographic profile of the respondents and frequency of fast food consumption was collected. The subjects were asked to fill the questionnaire containing these details. D2 attention span test and memory retention test were conducted among the selected subjects in order to assess their cognitive development. The results revealed that there was frequent consumption of fast food among the school children, wherein comparison to the private school children, consumption of fast foods by government school children was slightly higher. Frequently consumed fast foods among both private and government school children were chips, biscuits, bread, cookies, golgappe (potato filled fried salty snack) and samosa (potato stuffed fried salty snack). A significant negative correlation was observed between the consumption of fast food and attention span and memory retention; while a significant positive correlation was observed between attention span and memory retention. Hence, it was concluded that private school children were having better attention span (p<0.05) and memory retention scores than government school children.