Childhood cognitive ability and physical activity in young adulthood.

Abstract

Objective: Childhood cognitive ability is associated with lifestyle in adulthood, including self-reported physical activity (PA). We examined whether childhood cognitive ability is associated with objectively measured PA and sedentary time (ST) in young adulthood. Method: Participants of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (n = 500) underwent tests of general reasoning, visuomotor integration, verbal competence, and language comprehension at the age of 56 months yielding a general intelligence factor score; at the age of 25 years they wore omnidirectional accelerometers for 9 days (range = 4–10 days) measuring overall daily PA (counts per minute, cpm), ST, and light and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (minutes), and completed a questionnaire on occupational, commuting, leisure-time conditioning and nonconditioning PA. Results: After adjustment for sex, age, BMI-for-age SD score at 56 months. and mean of valid minutes of measurement period for PA, per each 1 SD increase in the childhood general intelligence factor score, overall daily PA decreased by −8.99 cpm/day, ST increased by 14.93 min/day, time spent in light PA decreased by −14.39 min/day, and the odds per each level increase in physical demandingness of the work and in time spent in nonconditioning leisure-time PA decreased by 38% and 31%, respectively (p values < 0.04). These associations were mediated via higher young adulthood level of education. Conclusions: In contrast to expected, in this cohort of young adults with high variability in PA, of whom many were still studying, higher childhood cognitive ability was associated with more objectively measured and self-reported physical inactivity. Whether these findings persist beyond young adulthood is a subject of further studies.

Self-reported mid- to late-life physical and recreational activities: Associations with late-life cognition

“…Participants were not randomly selected, nor were they randomly assigned to different levels of activity engagement; in other words, participants self-selected their own physical and recreational activity levels. It is possible that one or more unmeasured variable(s), such as early-life intellectual functioning (Kumpulainen et al, 2017) or socioeconomic status (Hua & Brown, 2022), may have predisposed some individuals to be more physically and recreationally active throughout the lifespan, and also predisposed them toward lower risk of cognitive decline through pathways that were (largely) independent from physical and recreational activity participation (e.g., better nutrition, better access to health care, less exposure to environmental toxins). In addition, we cannot exclude reverse causality as a possible explanation for some of our results, as activity engagement may decline as a result of early declines in cognitive functioning (e.g., Sabia et al, 2017).…”

Effects of 8 weeks parent-accompanied swimming on physical capacity and intelligence in preschool children

“…IQ is defined as the relatively stable psychological characteristics of an individual's understanding of objective things, including a combination of perceptual observation, memory, imagination and thinking (1). Intelligence in the preschool years is a continuous developmental process, it can influence academic achievement, knowledge acquisition, and labor skill levels in young adulthood (16). Physical exercise improves children's cognitive ability and IQ scores (17,18).…”