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Does increased physical activity in school affect children's executive function and aerobic fitness?
Author(s) -
Kvalø S. E.,
Bru E.,
Brønnick K.,
Dyrstad S. M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of medicine and science in sports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.575
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1600-0838
pISSN - 0905-7188
DOI - 10.1111/sms.12856
Subject(s) - aerobic exercise , stroop effect , memory span , affect (linguistics) , cognition , physical therapy , executive functions , psychology , physical fitness , fluency , medicine , working memory , neuroscience , mathematics education , communication
This study seeks to explore whether increased PA in school affects children's executive function and aerobic fitness. The “Active school” study was a 10‐month randomized controlled trial. The sample included 449 children (10‐11 years old) in five intervention and four control schools. The weekly interventions were 2×45 minutes physically active academic lessons, 5×10 minutes physically active breaks, and 5×10 minutes physically active homework. Aerobic fitness was measured using a 10‐minute interval running test. Executive function was tested using four cognitive tests (Stroop, verbal fluency, digit span, and Trail Making). A composite score for executive function was computed and used in analyses. Mixed ANCOVA repeated measures were performed to analyze changes in scores for aerobic fitness and executive function. Analysis showed a tendency for a time×group interaction on executive function, but the results were non‐significant F (1, 344)=3.64, P =.057. There was no significant time×group interaction for aerobic fitness. Results indicate that increased physical activity in school might improve children's executive function, even without improvement in aerobic fitness, but a longer intervention period may be required to find significant effects.