School Feeding to Improve Cognitive Performance in Disadvantaged Children: A 3-Arm Parallel Controlled Trial in Northwest Pakistan

Malnutrition is associated with reduced learning aptitude and growth during childhood. We examined the impact of providing two school lunch variants, a standard school meal (school feeding, n = 70), or the standard meal with additional micronutrients (school feeding + micronutrient powder (MNP), n = 70), in children attending two schools in northwest Pakistan. A third local government school, where no lunch was provided (no school feeding, n = 70), served as the control. The primary outcome, cognitive function, was assessed using the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) test, alongside haemoglobin, at three-time points: T1 (baseline, before the initiation of the school lunch programme), T2 and T3 (5 and 12 months, respectively, after the introduction of the school lunch). Data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models to contrast between trial groups, the changes from T1 to T2 and T3. Adjusted for T1 and other co-variates, improvements in the RCPM scores were significantly greater in the school feeding group at T2 (b = 1.61, (95% CI = 0.71–2.52), t = 3.52, p = 0.001) and T3 (b = 1.28, (95% CI = 0.22–2.35), t = 2.38, p = 0.019) compared with no school feeding. In addition, at T2 (b = 1.63, (95% CI = −0.10–3.37), t = 1.86, p = 0.065), there were no significant differences between school feeding + MNP and no school feeding groups. However, improvements in the RCPM scores were significantly greater in the school feeding + MNP group at T3 (b = 2.35, (95% CI = 0.51–4.20), t = 2.53, p = 0.013) compared with no school feeding. The findings indicate an improvement in cognitive performance in children who received a school meal with and without MNP, over a 12-month period. Currently there is no operational school feeding programme at the national or provincial level in Pakistan. Our findings, therefore, highlight the need for school feeding programmes to improve learning opportunities for children from underprivileged communities.