The Impact of the Daily Mile™ on School Pupils’ Fitness, Cognition, and Wellbeing: Findings From Longer Term Participation

Abstract

BackgroundSchool based running programmes, such as The Daily Mile™, positively impact pupils’ physical health, however, there is limited evidence on psychological health. Additionally, current evidence is mostly limited to examining the acute impact. The present study examined the longer term impact of running programmes on pupil cognition, wellbeing, and fitness.MethodData from 6,908 school pupils (mean age 10.2 ± 0.7 years), who were participating in a citizen science project, was examined. Class teachers provided information about participation in school based running programmes. Participants completed computer-based tasks of inhibition, verbal and visual-spatial working memory, as well as the Children’s Feeling scale and Felt arousal scale to determine subjective wellbeing. A multistage 20-m shuttle run test was used to estimate fitness.ResultsFrom our total sample of 6,908 school pupils, 474 participants had been taking part in a running programme for <2 months (Shorter term participation); 1,004 participants had Longer Term participation (>3 months); and 5,430 did not take part in a running programme. The Longer Term participation group had higher fitness levels than both other groups and this remained significant when adjusted for age, sex and SES. Moderated regression analysis found that for the Shorter Term participation group, higher shuttle distance was associated with better visual-spatial working memory. Effect sizes were small though.ConclusionWe identified small and selective positive impact of participation in school based running programmes on fitness and cognition. While no long term benefit was identified for cognition or wellbeing, the impact on fitness and short term benefit suggest schools should consider participation.

Effect of 5-weeks participation in The Daily Mile on cognitive function, physical fitness, and body composition in children

“…The improvements in executive function following the implementation of The Daily Mile in primary school children is a novel finding of the present study. However, this key finding is consistent with the limited previous research that has examined the effect of other school-based physical activity interventions on executive function in children 6 , 13 , yet is not in line with a large citizen science study that reported no differences in cognition between those young people who regularly complete The Daily Mile and those who do not 19 . Importantly, the present study is novel in that it specifically examined the effect of The Daily Mile using a randomised control design, rather than cross-sectionally comparing those who regularly do and do not complete The Daily Mile, as in previous work 19 ; where confounding variables could influence study outcomes.…”

“…Tarp et al 14 also reported that a school-based physical activity intervention (specifically 20 weeks of classroom-based activities and active transport) had no effect on the attention of children aged 11–13 years, when attention was measured using the Flanker test. Whilst the findings of the present study, when taken in conjunction with those of Tarp et al 14 and the citizen science study of Booth et al 19 , suggest that school-based physical activity interventions have no effect on attention or working memory, research in the field to date is limited and there are many variables relating to school-based physical activity interventions that need to be explored in the future. Therefore, future research should examine the effect of different physical activity modes, durations, intensities, and frequencies to optimise school-based interventions for the enhancement of all domains of cognitive function in primary school children, with the aim to enhance as many cognitive domains as possible.…”

“…The discrepant findings of previous research might be of concern to teachers and school leaders who may have implemented The Daily Mile for immediate improvements in cognition during the school day. Furthermore, a follow-up of the large citizen science study revealed no differences between those young people who regularly complete The Daily Mile, compared to those who do not 19 . However, an important secondary finding of the citizen science study 19 and that of Hatch et al 15 was that children with higher physical fitness (measured as distance ran on the multi-stage fitness test; MSFT) displayed enhanced cognition compared to less fit children.…”

“…However, an important secondary finding of the citizen science study 19 and that of Hatch et al 15 was that children with higher physical fitness (measured as distance ran on the multi-stage fitness test; MSFT) displayed enhanced cognition compared to less fit children. Therefore, given the positive association between physical fitness and cognitive function in children 5 , 16 , and the potential for participation in The Daily Mile to enhance fitness 19 , it is important future research concurrently examines the chronic effects of The Daily Mile on physical fitness and subsequent cognitive function, as it might be that the benefits on cognition occur chronically via improvements in physical fitness.…”

A rapid systematic review of the effect of The Daily Mile™on children’s physical activity, physical health, mental health, wellbeing, academic performance and cognitive function

“…Fields included: author's names, year, study design, duration and sample characteristics. is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) [29] Quasi experimental between groups; Part of BBC Terrific Scientific project-data collected from schools on participation in TDM and categorised them as no participation, shorter term participation (2 months or less) and longer-term participation (3 months or more).…”