J Phys Act Health. 2012 Jun 12. [Epub ahead of print]
Examining the Impact of 45 Minutes of Daily Physical Education on Cognitive Ability, Fitness Performance, and Body Composition of African American Youth.
Source
Dept of Health Sciences, Furman University, Greenville, SC.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Increased importance on academic achievement has resulted in many school districts focusing on improved academic performance leading to reductions in physical education time. The purpose was to examine the effects of 45 minutes of daily physical education on the cognitive ability, fitness performance and body composition of African American elementary and middle school youth.
METHODS:
Participants completing the Informed Consent in grades 2nd-8th were included in the study. A pre/post-test design was used with repeated measures analysis of variance. Experimental and control school participants were pre-tested on the cognitive measures (i.e., Fluid Intelligence and Perceptual Speed) and Fitnessgram® physical fitness test items (e.g., aerobic capacity, muscular strength and muscular endurance , body composition) in September, 2009 and post-tested in May, 2010.
RESULTS:
Experimental elementary and middle school participants observed significantly greater improvements compared with control elementary and middle school participants on 7 of 16 fitness and body composition measures and on 8 of 26 cognitive measures. These fitness, body composition, and cognitive improvement differences were more noticeable among elementary and middle school females.
CONCLUSIONS:
Providing 45 minutes of daily physical education can perhaps increase cognitive ability while increasing fitness and decreasing the prevalence of overweight and obese youth.
No comments:
Post a Comment