-
Source: ONE News
Getting students to exercise more might not just address obesity
issues but also improve their grades with a US study finding
physically fit students tend to score higher in tests than their
less fit peers.
Test scores dropped more than one point for each extra minute it
took middle and high school students to complete a one mile
run/walk fitness test, according to Dr William J McCarthy and
colleagues at the University of California in Los Angeles.
Schools and parents seeking to optimize their students' academic
performance should take heed, McCarthy noted.
For optimal brain function it's good to be both aerobically fit and
to have a healthy body shape.
McCarthy and colleagues compared physical fitness and body weight
measures with scores on California's standardized math, reading,
and language tests among 749 fifth-graders, 761 seventh-graders,
and 479 ninth-graders who attended schools in Southern California
between 2002 and 2003.
About half of the students were girls, 60% were white, 26% were of
Hispanic ethnicity, and about seven percent each were African
American and Asian/Pacific Islander.
Almost 32% of the students were overweight and about 28% were
obese, the researchers report in The Journal of
Pediatrics.
The researchers estimated students' aerobic fitness according to their one-mile run/walk time on a flat track.
With a 15-minute maximum allowed time to complete the test, the
boys averaged slightly less than 10 minutes, while the girls
averaged a little less than 11 minutes.
McCarthy's team found that nearly two thirds of the students (65%)
fell below the state fitness standard for their age and gender.
Compared with these students, students who met or exceeded fitness standards had higher average test scores.
Allowing for age, social and economic status, gender, ethnicity,
and body size did not significantly alter this association.
Compared with students of desirable weight, overweight and obese
students also scored significantly lower on tests, the researchers
found.
These findings, McCarthy's team notes, confirm and extend those of
previous investigations.
They say further studies are needed to figure out why aerobic
fitness may play a role in academic performance.
If future studies confirm a cause-and-effect link between lower
fitness and reduced academic performance, schools will have to
reverse their recent disinvestment in physical education ostensibly
for the purposes of boosting student achievement, they
concluded.
