Multi-Level Meta-Analysis of Physical Activity Interventions During Childhood: Effects of Physical Activity on Cognition and Academic Achievement

Abstract

There is evidence that physical activity positively influences cognition and academic outcomes in childhood. This systematic review used a three-level meta-analytic approach, which handles nested effect sizes, to assess the impact of physical activity interventions. Ninety-two randomised control trials in typically developing children (5–12 years old, N = 25,334) were identified. Control group type and intervention characteristics including duration, frequency, and teacher qualification were explored as potential moderators. Results showed physical activity interventions improved on-task behaviour with a large effect size (g = 1.04, p = 0.03 (95% CI: 0.08–2.00), very low-certainty evidence) and led to moderate improvements in creativity (g = 0.70, p < 0.01 (0.20–1.20), low-certainty evidence). Small beneficial effects were found for fluid intelligence (g = 0.16, p = 0.03 (0.02, 0.30), moderate-certainty evidence) and working memory (g = 0.18, p = 0.01 (0.07–0.29), very low-certainty evidence), but no overall benefit was observed for attention, inhibitory control, planning, cognitive flexibility or academic outcomes. Heterogeneity was high, and moderator analyses indicated beneficial effects of physical activity (PA) with academic instruction of 6–10-week duration with moderate or moderate to vigorous intensity on mathematics outcomes and enriched PA programmes on language outcomes. In contrast, aerobic PA with moderate to vigorous intensity benefitted executive function outcomes. These results therefore suggest differential mechanisms of impact of different types of PA on different aspects of cognition.

Multi-level meta-analysis of whether fostering creativity during physical activity interventions increases their impact on cognitive and academic outcomes during childhood

“…The ratings of the risk of bias assessment, using the EPHPP Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies 83 , are provided for each study in Online resource Table S4 . Analyses and discussion of these results are shown in our companion study 56 .…”

“…Key terms related to executive functioning, academic achievement, physical activity interventions, and children (see Online resource Table S2 ). The focus was on peer reviewed randomised control trials in typically developing 5–12-year-old children using objective outcome measures published between 01/01/2000 and 30/09/2022 (see Online resource Table S3 for more detail about selection criteria and our companion paper 56 .…”

“…We considered immediate effects within a two-week period due to the difficulty of collecting data immediately post intervention in a school setting. Full details of data extraction are described in our companion paper 56 .…”

“…Confidence intervals are reported to identify bias due to small samples and categorised as low (< 30%), moderate (50%) and high (> 75%) when reporting heterogeneity for I 2 81 – 83 . Additional information on statistical techniques are given in our companion study 56 .…”

“…Building on a meta-analysis assessing the effects of a range of PA intervention on executive functioning, fluid intelligence, on-task behaviour, creativity and academic outcomes in primary school children 56 , the aim of the present analyses is to extent the work to examine whether PA interventions that fostered creativity to a greater extent led to greater cognitive and academic improvements. Interventions were classified based on a series of task- and environment-based characteristics that have been identified in existing cognitive and pedagogical motor learning literature as supportive of a creative physical practice (see Table 1 and Online resource Table S1 for more detail).…”