A Randomized Trial Examining the Effects of Aerobic Physical Activity on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Young Children

Abstract

The goal of this study was to compare the effects of before school physical activity (PA) and sedentary classroom-based (SC) interventions on the symptoms, behavior, moodiness and peer functioning of young children (Mage = 6.83) at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD-risk; n = 94) and typically developing children (TD; n = 108). Children were randomly assigned to either PA or SC and participated in the assigned intervention 31 minutes per day, each school day, over the course of 12 weeks. Parent and teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity), oppositional behavior, moodiness, behavior toward peers, and reputation with peers, were used as dependent variables. Primary analyses indicate that the PA intervention was more effective than the SC intervention at reducing inattention and moodiness in the home context. Less conservative follow-up analyses within ADHD status and intervention groups suggest that a PA intervention may reduce impairment associated with ADHD-risk in both home and school domains; interpretive caution is warranted, however, given the liberal approach to these analyses. Unexpectedly, these findings also indicate the potential utility of a before school SC intervention as a tool for managing ADHD symptoms. Inclusion of a no treatment control group in future studies will enable further understanding of PA as an alternative management strategy for ADHD symptoms.

Systematic review of sedentary behaviour and health indicators in school-aged children and youth: an update

“…However, there was no intervention effect on several other parental-and teacher-reported measures (Hoza et al 2015). In the crossover trial, a significantly lower percentage of on-task behaviour was observed in the sedentary control versus the 10-min exercise break condition but not the 5-or 20-min condition (Howie et al 2014).…”

La Actividad Física en Jóvenes Con Dificultades De Aprendizaje

“…Por un lado, siete artículos incluyeron escolares diagnosticados TDAH (Choi et al, 2015;Hoza et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2014;Pan et al, 2015;Smith et al, 2013;Verret et al, 2012;Ziereis & Jansen, 2015). Por otro lado, seis artículos trabajaron con escolares TEA (Dickinson & Place, 2014;Hillier et al, 2011;Nicholson et al, 2011;Oriel et al, 2011;Pan et al, 2016;Vander & Sprong, 2011).…”

“…Las sesiones de AF consistieron en la realización de ejercicio aeróbico como carrera (Nicholson et al, 2011;Oriel et al, 2011;Vander & Sprong, 2011), práctica deportiva como natación (Huang et al, 2014) o tenis de mesa (Pan et al, 2015), AF combinada con relajación (Hillier et al, 2011) u otro tipo de sesiones a intensidad moderada o moderada-vigorosa (Choi et al, 2015;Hoza et al, 2015;Smith et al, 2013;Verret et al, 2012) a destacar el trabajo de habilidades motrices (Ziereis & Jansen, 2015) o utilización de videojuegos activos (Dickinson & Place, 2014). Antes y después de realizar el programa de intervención fueron medidas las variables propias del RA y RC.…”

“…Los estudios se llevaron a cabo en seis países diferentes: un estudio en Alemania (Ziereis & Jansen, 2015), uno en Canadá (Verret et al, 2012), uno en Corea del Sur (Choi et al, 2015), uno en el Reino Unido (Dickinson & Place, 2014), tres en China (Huang et al, 2014;Pan et al, 2015;Pan et al, 2016), seis en Estados Unidos (Dickinson & Place, 2014;Hillier et al, 2011;Hoza et al, 2015;Nicholson et al, 2011;Oriel et al, 2011;Smith et al 2013 …”

“…Hoza et al (2015), tras 12 semanas de AF aeróbica, registraron mejoras en inatención. Y Verret et al (2012), tras 10 semanas de AFMV (45 min/día durante 3 días/sem), hallaron mejora en atención, inhibición de respuesta y procesamiento de información.…”