children ’ s Physical fitness and Academic Performance

Background: Childhood obesity is a major public health threat. Increased fitness may have a positive influence on cognitive performance in both adults and children. Purpose: To examine which aspects of children’s fitness assessment are associated with their performance on four different academic areas. Methods: FITNESSGRAM measures aerobic capacity, abdominal strength, upper body strength/endurance, flexibility, and trunk lift. Gender and a socio-economic status proxy were compared with mean group performance scores across four subscales: mathematics, reading/language arts, science, and social studies of a statewide standardized academic performance test on a sample of 968 5th grade students (50.7% male; mean age = 10.6 years). Results: Achievement test scores were significantly better for children who were in the Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) for aerobic capacity and abdominal strength tests when compared to children who were unable to achieve the healthy zone. Children in the HFZ for upper body strength performed significantly better in math. Children in the HFZ for flexibility performed significantly better in math and science. No differences were found in academic performance when children in the HFZ for trunk lift were compared to children not in the healthy zone. When all FITNESSGRAM measures were used in a full factorial ANOVA with Body Mass Index (BMI), gender and meal program (a proxy variable for socioeconomic status) as covariates, aerobic capacity was found to be the only fitness variable consistently appearing as important. It was always significant as a main effect variable while no other main effect fitness variable achieved significance for any WESTEST subject. Two-way, three-way, and four-way interactions always included aerobic fitness and no other fitness measure was universal in these interactions. Discussion: Whereas, aerobic fitness appears universally important in academic success, additional mechanisms may be at work due to the several interactions that achieved significance. The interactions may be an indication of the importance of overall fitness in addition to aerobic fitness. These findings support the development and implementation of childhood cardiovascular risk surveillance programs that not only evaluate children’s overweight risks but also their fitness. Translation to Health Education Practice: Increased focus on ways to improve children’s fitness levels may create the need to reevaluate current policy recommendations for children’s physical education. Wittberg RA, Northrup KL, Cottrell L. Children’s physical fitness and academic performance: what fitness characteristics affect test scores?. Am J Health Educ. 2009;40(1):30-36 This paper was submitted to the Journal on December 28, 2007, revised and accepted for publication on August 30, 2008. Richard A. Wittberg is the Executive Director for the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, 211 6th Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; E-mail: [email protected]. Karen L. Northrup is the L.I.F.E. in the Wood County Schools, 1600 Beverly Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101; E-mail: [email protected]. Lesley Cottrell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 9214 RCBHSC Morgantown, WV 26506-9214; E-mail: [email protected]. Richard A. Wittberg, Karen L. Northrup, and Lesley Cottrel American Journal of Health Education — January/February 2009, Volume 40, No. 1 31 evidence was provided by Datar, Sturm, and Maganabossa who found significant differences in test scores by overweight status at the beginning of kindergarten and at the end of grade one. These authors, however, argued that the differences in student academic performance scores could be explained by other individual characteristics such as parental education and home environment. In related research, the restorative effects of physical activity on cognitive functioning have been described over the past two decades. For instance, Blomquist and Danner demonstrated that the group of adults (18-48 years old) who improved 15% or more in physical fitness improved significantly more on name recall than the group whose fitness remained stable. Colcombe and colleagues demonstrated that physical exercise may slow aging effects and help people maintain cognitive abilities well into older age, resulting in decreased incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Likewise, Etnier and berry showed significant improvements in cognitive function at three months with distance walked in older patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Another study found that fitness at age 11 was significantly associated with successful cognitive aging at age 79. Furthermore, some researchers have hypothesized that the relationship between aerobic fitness and cognitive processes is more complex. They differ by age and type of cognitive processes, with tasks requiring strong attentional capacities being more affected. Although most of the work in this area has been conducted among older samples, a large study in California demonstrated significant differences in academic performance when the number of FITNESSGRAM tests for which the child was in the Healthy Fitness zone (HFz) was considered. Specifically, the more tests for which the child was in the HFz, the better the child’s scores on California Standards Tests. The authors also found socioeconomic status (SES) to be a factor in academic success. They found that the relationship between fitness and academic achievement was especially strong for females and for higher SES students. Finally, they cautioned that causality that increased fitness caused a higher level of academic achievement could not be inferred. Cottrell et al. have shown that a collective model consisting of student gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and fitness explains a considerable amount of the variation in 5th graders’ academic performance on the West Virginia Educational Standards Test (WESTEST). While this data set had body Mass Index (bMI) data, this variable was not found to be significantly associated with any academic score when used in the above multivariate model, providing evidence that fitness may be a better predictor of academic achievement than bMI. To improve the understanding of relationships between physical fitness and cognitive functioning among child samples, several remaining questions must be addressed. First, what are the specific areas of fitness accounting for differences in academic test scores? Multiple areas of fitness are assessed using standardized procedures, but not all types of fitness may be related to academic performance. Identifying particular areas of fitness would allow programs to target certain types of physical activity that might maintain or improve cognitive performance on school assessments. Second, do different fitness areas relate to different types of cognitive assessment? For instance, certain types of fitness may be more germane to mathematic ability than others related to science or social studies applications.