Aerobic fitness mediates the intervention effects of a school-based physical activity intervention on academic performance. The school in Motion study - A cluster randomized controlled trial.
View / Open Files
Authors
Solberg, Runar Barstad
Steene-Johannessen, Jostein
Wang Fagerland, Morten
Anderssen, Sigmund A
Berntsen, Sveinung
Resaland, Geir K
van Sluijs, Esther MF
Ekelund, Ulf
Kolle, Elin
Publication Date
2021-12Journal Title
Prev Med Rep
ISSN
2211-3355
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
24
Number
101648
Pages
101648-101648
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Solberg, R. B., Steene-Johannessen, J., Wang Fagerland, M., Anderssen, S. A., Berntsen, S., Resaland, G. K., van Sluijs, E. M., et al. (2021). Aerobic fitness mediates the intervention effects of a school-based physical activity intervention on academic performance. The school in Motion study - A cluster randomized controlled trial.. Prev Med Rep, 24 (101648), 101648-101648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101648
Abstract
Little information exists on the mechanism of how physical activity interventions effects academic performance. We examined whether the effects of a school-based physical activity intervention on academic performance were mediated by aerobic fitness. The School in Motion study was a nine-month cluster randomized controlled trial between September 2017 and June 2018. Students from 30 Norwegian lower secondary schools (N = 2,084, mean age [SD] = 14 [0.3] years) were randomly assigned into three groups: the Physically Active Learning (PAL) intervention (n = 10), the Don't Worry-Be Happy (DWBH) intervention (n = 10), or control (n = 10). Aerobic fitness was assessed by the Andersen test and academic performance by national tests in reading and numeracy. Mediation was assessed according to the causal steps approach using linear mixed models. In the PAL intervention, aerobic fitness partially mediated the intervention effect on numeracy by 28% from a total effect of 1.73 points (95% CI: 1.13 to 2.33) to a natural direct effect of 1.24 points (95% CI: 0.58 to 1.91), and fully mediated the intervention effect on reading, with the total effect of 0.89 points (95% CI: 0.15 to 1.62) reduced to the natural direct effect of 0.40 points (95% CI: -0.48 to 1.28). Aerobic fitness did not mediate the effects on academic performance in the DWBH intervention. As aerobic fitness mediated the intervention effect on academic performance in one intervention, physical activity of an intensity that increases aerobic fitness is one strategy to improve academic performance among adolescents.
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (grant number MC_UU_00006/5).
Funder references
MRC (MC_UU_00006/5)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/7)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101648
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/332584
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.