Abstract
Background
Physical activity (PA) and obesity were linked with poor cognition. Our study assessed PA interventions could improve domain-specific cognition among overweight/obese youth.
Methods
Systematically searched PubMed to identify relevant studies published up to October 2019. Standardized mean differences (SMD) of pre−post intervention were calculated in meta-analysis. The level of study heterogeneity represented by I2 was interpreted as small (I2 ≤ 25%), moderate (25% < I2 ≤ 50%), substantial (50% < I2 ≤ 75%), or considerable (I2 > 75%).
Results
Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria; eight were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis revealed that PA interventions improved core executive functions (core-EFs) (SMD = 0.301; 95% CI = 0.002−0.600; I2% = 80.6%) and non-EFs (SMD = 0.159; 95% CI = 0.029−0.289; I2% = 0.0%), but not metacognition and academic performance. Core-EFs benefited from enriched PA (SMD = 0.535; 95% CI = 0.020−1.051; I2% = 72.0%) and enhanced and enriched PA (SMD = 1.005; 95% CI = 0.017−1.993; I2% = 90.8%) interventions, while the non-EFs benefited more from enhanced PA (SMD = 0.166; 95% CI = 0.018−0.314; I2% = 0.0%). Interventions with a favorable effect on adiposity measures resulted in a significantly greater improvement in core-EFs (SMD = 0.438; 95% CI = 0.047−0.829; I2% = 58.8%) than those with no effects.
Conclusions
PA interventions can improve several domains of cognition, especially core-EFs and non-EFs, and the effects are affected by PA characteristics among overweight and obese youth.
Impact
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Our study is the first to quantify the effect of PA interventions on CP among overweight or obese children and adolescents.
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Physical activity interventions positively affect cognitive performance, especially core executive functions (core-EFs) and non-EFs.
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Physical activity interventions seem to not positively affect metacognition (higher-level EFs and cognitive life skills) and academic performance.
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Physical task characteristics could influence the effect of chronic exercise on cognitive performance.
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Short-term physical activity programs may be particularly beneficial to affect core-EFs.
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Acknowledgements
The study was funded in part by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH, U54 HD070725) and by the Xi’an Jiaotong University. The U54 project (U54 HD070725) is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (OD). Y.W. is the principal investigator of the study. The content of the paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
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X.S. and Y.L.: contributed to the study design, literature search, data screening and extraction, conducted all statistical analyses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript and integration of all comments of the coauthors before submission. L.C.: contributed to the design of the study, literature search, data screening, data interpretation and critical revisions of the first draft. Y.W.: contributed to the study design, literature search, statistical analysis, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors have revised and approved the final manuscript for submission.
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Search terms
Search algorithm includes all possible combinations of keywords from the following four groups:
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A.
“physical activity” OR “athletic participation” OR “exercise” OR “active*” OR “training” OR “sport*” OR “physical education” OR “fitness” OR “aerobic”
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B.
“overweight” OR “obes*” OR “adiposity”
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C.
“child*” OR “adolescen*” OR “juvenile*” OR “youth*” OR “teen*” OR “kid*” OR “student*” OR “pupil*” OR “preschool*” OR “school age*” OR “school child*”
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D.
“academic achievement” OR “academic performance” OR “academic attainment” OR “academic skills” OR “academic ability” OR “performance at school” OR “cognit*” OR “brain”
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E.
“intervention stud*” OR “randomized controlled” OR “longitudinal stud*”OR “cohort stud*” OR “prospective”
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Sun, X., Li, Y., Cai, L. et al. Effects of physical activity interventions on cognitive performance of overweight or obese children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pediatr Res 89, 46–53 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-020-0941-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-020-0941-3
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