Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 168, January 2016, Pages 126-131.e2
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Article
Physical Activity Is Associated with Attention Capacity in Adolescents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.09.029Get rights and content

Objective

To assess the relationships among physical activity, measured objectively, and attention capacity in European adolescents.

Study design

The study included 273 adolescents, aged 12.5-17.5 years, who participated in the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Study. Participants wore a uniaxial accelerometer for 7 days to measure physical activity. The d2 Test of Attention was administered to assess attention capacity. Multivariate analyses were used to study the association of attention capacity with each measure of physical activity. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to determine thresholds that best discriminate between low and good attention capacity.

Results

After controlling for potential confounding variables (age, sex, body mass index, parental educational level, fat mass, aerobic fitness, and center), adolescents' attention capacity test performances were significantly and positively associated with longer time spent in moderate or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in free-living conditions (P < .05). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed that the physical activity thresholds that best discriminated between low/good attention capacities were ≥41 min·day−1 for moderate, ≥12 min·day−1 for vigorous, and ≥58 min·day−1 for MVPA.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that promoting MVPA may be have a beneficial effect on attention capacity, an important component of cognition, in adolescents.

Section snippets

Methods

This is an ancillary study of the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) Study (www.helenastudy.com) performed in European adolescents (2006-2007). The aim of the HELENA Study was to obtain a broad range of standardized, reliable, and comparable nutrition- and health-related data from a random sample of European adolescents aged 12.5-17.5 years. The random selection of schools and classes was performed centrally (by Ghent University) for all cities except Pecs and

Results

A descriptive analysis of the study population is reported in Table I. One hundred thirty adolescents (47.6%) performed more 60 min·day−1 of MVPA. In multivariate analyses, time spent in moderate or MVPA in free-living conditions was significantly associated (P < .05) with an increase in the adolescents' attention capacity after adjustment for the father's and mother's educational levels, age, sex, BMI, center, fat mass, and aerobic fitness level (Table II). Besides physical activity variables,

Discussion

The association between physical activity levels and attention capacity, taking into account age, BMI, sex, parents' educational level, center, fat mass, and aerobic fitness level, supports the hypothesis that there is a positive effect of physical activity on attention capacity in adolescents. This association was independent of sex; however, we caution that this study lacked adequate statistical power to detect a significant interaction. Owing to the study's cross-sectional design, we cannot

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      The general pattern observed across a variety of tasks and age populations is that engaging in exercise leads to improved attention performance on laboratory tasks (de Sousa et al., 2019). In addition, increased fitness level—defined as the individual difference in the tendency to exercise—is also associated with improved attentional performance (de Sousa et al., 2019; Vanhelst et al., 2016). This has been shown using both objective laboratory indices of fitness level such as the maximum amount of oxygen one utilizes during exercise (also known as VO2max; Luque-Casado et al., 2016) as well as subjective measures (e.g., self-report questionnaires assessing physical activity level; Newson and Kemps, 2008).

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    The HELENA Study is supported by the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Program (FOOD-CT-20056007034) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2010-05957 and RYC-2011-09011). The content of this paper reflects only the authors' views, and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

    List of HELENA Study Group members is available at www.jpeds.com (Appendix).

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