Physical activity and cognition in children in relation to academic performance
Abstract
Background: The schools are demanding higher performance from their students and
physical education is a subject that is easy to cut from the curriculum. As physical
education steadily has declined since the 70s, the need to focus on the known benefits of
physical activity in children is eminent. The aim of this paper is to look at the effects of
physical activity and cognitive performance in school aged children and link is to the
children’s academic achievement.
Methods: A systematic search with pre-determined search terms was conducted using
the electronic databases PubMed, SportDiscus and Web of Science searching for review
studies on physical activity and cognitive function in a school based setting. The
searched included school-aged children only, and only studies that included some form
of physical activity intervention as well as a measure of cognitive function and
academic achievement.
Results: Four review articles were included for review, two meta-analysis and two
systematic reviews. The presented findings did not show a positive association between
physical activity and academic performance. The studies report significant but weak
relationship between physical activity and cognitive performance or a neutral
association. None of the studies found negative effects of allocation academic time
towards more physical activity during the school day.
Conclusion: The presented evidence cannot conclude in a positive relationship between
physical activity and cognitive function. However given the positive outcome on
children’s health, there lies no apparent reason why physical activity should not be an
important part of the school day in both recess and as activity breaks as well as normal
physical education.
Description
Masteroppgave - Norges idrettshøgskole, 2014