Association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and attention deficit in students aged 6 to 12 years old from private educational institutions in Metropolitan Lima and Arequipa, 2022

Background: It is important to highlight the easy access that schoolchildren have today to ultra-processed products, and the prevalence of attention deficit has also been increasing in this age group. The objective of this study was to determine the association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and attention deficit in schoolchildren from 6 to 12 years of age in private educational institutions in the cities of Lima and Arequipa in Peru in 2022. Methods: Cross-sectional analytical study. A non-probabilistic sampling was carried out, for convenience, the sample collected was 217 schoolchildren in 4 private educational institutions in the cities of Lima and Arequipa in Peru in 2022. Results: Of the total number of participants, 57.1% were women, 52.1% had ADHD, and 87.1% had a higher consumption of ultra-processed foods. No association was found between the main characteristics of ADHD and the consumption of ultra-processed foods in the evaluated schoolchildren (p>0.05), but there is an association between the consumption of snacks and ADHD (p<0.05). Likewise, it was found that being a man provides 34% more probabilities of having ADHD, not having a history in the parents represents a 37% less probability of presenting ADHD, and using technological devices for 3-4 hours represents 42% more probabilities of having ADHD. Conclusions: There is an association between the consumption of snacks and ADHD in schoolchildren from 6 to 12 years of age from private educational institutions in Metropolitan Lima and Arequipa, in the year 2022.