Active Commute in Relation to Cognition and Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Future Recommendations

Abstract

Active commuting to school (ACS) is an important source of physical activity among children. Recent research has focused on ACS and its benefits on cognition and academic achievement (AA), factors important for success in school. This review aims to synthesize literature on the relationship between ACS and cognition or AA among children and adolescents. Peer-reviewed articles in PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO and Cochrane Library assessing ACS with cognition and/or AA among children, until February 2019, were selected. Twelve studies across nine countries (age range 4-18.5 years) were included. One study used accelerometers, whereas all others used self-report measures of ACS. A wide range of objective assessments of cognitive functioning and AA domains were used. Five among eight studies, and four among six found a positive relationship between ACS and cognitive or AA measure, respectively. Four studies found dose-response relationships, and some studies found sex differences. The quantitative analysis found that ACS was not significantly associated with mathematics score (odds ratio = 1.18; CI = 0.40, 3.48). Findings are discussed in terms of methodological issues, potential confounders, and the strength of the evidence. Future studies should conduct longitudinal studies and use objective measures of ACS to understand this relationship further.

Long-Term Perspectives of a School-Based Intervention to Promote Active School Transportation

“…The results show that the intervention actually increased the attractiveness of the school and made more parents interested in placing their children there. An additional valued effect of using AST was the participants’ experience of higher concentration and more alertness during class; similar effects have been described previously [ 45 ]. In addition, our result show that the participants experienced less stress and a sense of wellbeing which is in line with health benefits of PA and AST that have been shown before [ 8 , 46 , 47 ].…”

Physical Activity and Academic Achievement: An Umbrella Review

“…Active commuting to and from school was not associated with improvements in mathematics [23,24] and language [23]. This may be explained by specific methodological factors, such as the different definitions employed across the primary studies and the various ways of measuring active commuting to and from school, including objective and subjective measures, the low frequency of participants who engage in active commuting to and from school, and the lack of moderators' assessment in the studies [23].…”

“…This may be explained by specific methodological factors, such as the different definitions employed across the primary studies and the various ways of measuring active commuting to and from school, including objective and subjective measures, the low frequency of participants who engage in active commuting to and from school, and the lack of moderators' assessment in the studies [23]. Other environmental factors may affect the low frequency of active commuting to and from school, such as air pollution, the existence of safe sidewalks, cycle paths, and routes to school, as well as perceived neighbourhood safety [24].…”

“…Briefly, studies ranged from 2003 to 2020; all studies were published in English, except the one that was published in the Spanish language [26]. All studies were systematic reviews, and 15 provided meta-analyses [23,24,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. The study design of the original reviews included only randomised controlled trials (RCT) or cluster RCT [29,35,40,41], and mixed designs (RCT, cluster RCT, cross-over designs, quasi-experimental studies, cross-sectional, and cohort studies) [9,17,23,24,[26][27][28][30][31][32][33][34][36][37][38][39].…”

“…There have also been discrepancies in the measurement of AA with both standardised and non-standardised tests being used, as well as ambiguity in the definition of AA. Finally, a range of PA interventions has been included in previous reviews, such as extra-curricular PA, PE, active classrooms, active commuting to and from school, specific modalities, and acute or chronic PA. For these reasons, definitive conclusions cannot yet be drawn [17,23,24].…”