Table 3.
Summary of relationship of cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills with academic performance
| Reference, country | Design/subjects | Fitness or motor skills assessment | Academic performance assessment | Main results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bassin and Breihan (1978), USA | Intervention 66 children | Visuomotor activities for trice a week for 20 weeks | Reading achievement | Motor skill based intervention had no effect on reading achievement. |
| Davis and Cooper (2011), USA | Cross-sectional 170 overweight children 7–11 years | Maximal treadmill test | The Woodcock-Johnson III | Higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with better reading and arithmetic performance |
| Dwyer et al. (2001), Australia | Cross-sectional 7961 children 7–15 years of age | 1.6 km, indirect submaximal cycle ergometer exercise test | Scholastic ability rated by 5-point scale | Better performance in the 1.6 km run was associated with higher scholastic ability |
| Ericsson (2008), Sweden | Intervention study 251 primary school children in Grades 1 to 3 | Motor activities for five lessons / week | Swedish (writing and reading), mathematics | Significant association between participation to the intervention and academic performance |
| Nourbakhsh (2006) Iran | Cross-sectional 400 girls 10–11 years of age | The Oseretsky scale | Grade point average | General static and dynamic coordination, synchronous-symmetrical and asynchronous-asymmetrical movements and total perceptual motor skill correlated positively with grade point average |
| Pagani et al. (2010), Canada | Cohort study 1145 children (538 boys) 5.4 years of age | Gross motor skills, fine motor skills | Teachers’ estimation of academic performance | Fine motor skills at the age of five predicted mathematics, reading, and overall academic performance 24 months later |
| van Dusen et al. (2011), USA | Cross-sectional 254 743 third to 11th grade students | 1 mile run, endurance shuttle run test (lowest quintile vs. highest quintile) | Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (reading and mathematics) | High-fit children had better academic performance, but no differences was found in elementary school |
| Uhrich and Swalm (2007), USA | Cluster-RCT 41 children 8 years of age | Speed stacking | Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (decoding, comprehension) | Intervention group performed better in comprehension but no differences were observed in decoding |
| Welk et al. (2010), USA | Cross-sectional 36 835 students | Endurance shuttle run test, 1.6 km run (meets recommendations vs. does not meet recommendations), | Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills; attendance, delinquency | Meeting recommendations for aerobic fitness was associated with better academic performance and better attendance |
| Wittberg et al. (2010), USA | Cross-sectional 1740 children 9–13 years of age | 1 mile run, endurance shuttle run test. (time spent to complete 1 mile; number of circuits in the shuttle run test) | West Virginia Standardized Test | Higher number of circuits in the PACER was associated with better academic performance in girls and faster time in the 1 mile run was associated with higher academic performance in boys |