Table 1.
Summary table of included reviews.
| Author, Year | Aim | Participants Type and Age (years old) | Number and Type of Included Studies | PA Assessment | AA Assessment | Setting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sibley and Etnier, 2003 [39] | To quantitatively combine and examine the results of studies about physical activity (PA) and cognition in children | Children and adolescents 4–18 |
16 in SR and meta-analyses RCT, quasi-experimental, cross-sectional and correlational |
Acute or chronic PA, resistance training, aerobic training, perceptual-motor, PE program | Achievement, verbal tests, math tests | NR |
| Strong et al., 2005 [42] | To review the effects of physical activity on health and behavioural outcomes and develop evidence-based recommendations for PA in youth | Children and adolescents 6–18 |
850 Quasi-experimental and cross-sectional |
Addition of PE to the curriculum | Grade point average, test scores, standardised test scores | School |
| Murray et al., 2007 [43] | To identify and summarise the evidence about Coordinated School Health Program-related determinants of AA | Children and adolescents 6–18 |
17 RCT, quasi-experimental |
PA or PE intervention | Grade point average, school grades, standardised test scores | School |
| Trudeau and Shephard, 2008 [44] | To review relationships of AP and some of its determinants to participation in school-based physical activities, including physical education (PE), free school PA and school sports | Children and adolescents 0–18 |
17 Quasi-experimental and cross-sectional |
Increase PA or PE lessons and extra-curricular PA | Grade point average, school grades, standardised test scores | School |
| Fedewa and Ahn, 2011 [27] | To synthesise the research on PA and children’s cognitive outcomes and to discuss implications for educators and other stakeholders in children’s AA | Children and adolescents 3–18 years |
59 Experimental, quasi-experimental, cross-sectional |
Resistance, circuit training, aerobic training, PE program or perceptual-motor training | Total achievement, spelling, language, art, reading, science and math achievement, grade point average | School |
| Rasberry et al., 2011 [9] | To synthesise the scientific literature that has examined the association between school-based PA (including PE) and AP | Children and adolescents 5–18 years |
43 Experimental, quasi-experimental, and descriptive |
PE and/or PA or extra-curricular physical activities (including school sports) | Grade point average, standardised test scores, classroom test scores, other formal assessments | School and community |
| Singh et al., 2012 [45] | To describe the prospective relationship between PA and AP | Children and adolescents 6–18 years |
14 Cohort and intervention |
Self-reported athletic participation, participation in PE lessons, self-reported PA, questionnaires or recalls | School grades, cognitive tests | School |
| Haapala, 2012 [40] | To overview the evidence of the effect of PA interventions on cognitive ability and AA in children and adolescents | Children and adolescents 7–18 |
9 RCT | PA training program | Standardised test scores or academic skills | School |
| Lees and Hopkins, 2013 [41] | To overview research elucidating the relationship between aerobic PA and children’s cognition, AA, and psychosocial function. | Children and adolescents 0–18 |
8 RCT | Aerobic PA | School grades | School |
| Pucher, Boot and de Vries, 2013 [46] | To determine whether school health promotion interventions can enhance children’s AP | Children and adolescents 6–18 |
7 RCT, crossover trials, quasi-experimental with pre-post test |
PE classes, daily classroom PA | School grades, standardised test scores | School |
| Busch et al., 2014 [47] | To systematically review the longitudinal effects of adolescents’ most prominent health-related behaviours on their AP | Adolescents 12–18 |
30 RCT and longitudinal |
PA and team sports’ participation | School grades | School |
| Martin et al., 2014 [28] | To assess whether lifestyle interventions improve school achievement, cognitive function and future success in overweight or obese children and adolescents compared with standard care, waiting list control, no treatment, or attention control | Children and adolescents 3–18 |
6 RCT, cluster RCT and controlled clinical trials, with or without crossover design |
Increase PA | Grade point average, test scores, standardised test scores | School, after-school, home |
| Conde and Tercedor, 2015 [26] | To summarise scientific studies published in recent years that evaluate the relationship between PA, fitness (including PE) with cognitive and AP in teenagers and colleges | Adolescents and young adults 11–22 |
28 Experimental, quasi-experimental, observational |
Increase PE lessons, questionnaires | Grade point average, school grades, standardised test scores | School |
| Esteban-Cornejo et al., 2015 [48] | To perform a systematic review of the evidence on the associations between PA and cognition by differentiating between academic and cognitive performance measures | Adolescents 13–18 |
20 Cross-sectional, longitudinal or interventional study |
Self-reported questionnaires and objective measures of PA | School grades, subject-test score | NR |
| Ferreira-Vorkapic et al., 2015 [29] | To systematically examine the available literature for yoga interventions exclusively in school settings, exploring the evidence of yoga-based interventions on academic, cognitive, and psychosocial benefits | Children and adolescents 5–18 |
9 in SR and meta-analyses RCT |
Yoga | AP | School |
| Mura et al., 2015 [49] | To examine the effects of school-based PA interventions on AA and cognitive outcomes | Children and adolescents 3–18 |
31 Experimental or quasi-experimental |
Increase PA, PE lessons by specialists | School grades, standardised test scores | School (classroom, schoolyard, school gym), after-school |
| Norris et al., 2015 [50] | To investigate the methods used in active physical lessons and their effects on PA and educational outcomes | Children and adolescents 0–18 |
11 RCT and non-RCT |
PA lessons intervention, PA active breaks, PA active math classes | Standardised test scores | School (classroom) |
| Donnelly et al., 2016 [17] | To investigate if PA and physical fitness influence cognition, learning, brain structure, and brain function, and if PE and sports programs influence standardised achievement test performance and concentration/attention, among children aged 5–13 | Children 5–13 |
73 Cross-sectional, acute, longitudinal, and intervention studies (both non-randomised and randomised) |
Increase PA (physically active classroom and breaks, PE, after-school programs) | Subjects exam score and standardised test scores | School (classroom, PE), after-school |
| Poitras et al., 2016 [51] | To examine the relationships between objectively measured PA and health indicators in school-aged children and youth | Children and adolescents 5–17 |
162 All study type |
Various volumes, durations, frequencies, intensities and patterns of objectively measured total PA | School grades, standardised test scores | School, community, home |
| Spruit et al., 2016 [30] | To conduct four multilevel meta-analyses on the effect of PA interventions on externalising problems, internalising problems, self-concept, and AA in adolescents | Adolescents 10–21 |
57 RCT and quasi-experimental |
Participation in sports or aerobic exercise | School grades, standardised test scores | NR |
| Álvarez-Bueno et al., 2017 [31] | To assess the effect of PA interventions on AA and classroom behaviours in childhood and to determine the characteristics of individuals and PA programs that enhance AP | Children and adolescents 4–13 |
26 in SR; 11 in meta-analyses RCT, quasi-experimental and controlled pre-post studies |
Active breaks, math with physically active tasks, extra-curricular PA, after-school PA or sports programs | School grades, standardised test scores | School, after-school |
| Li et al., 2017 [52] | To investigate whether exercise, proposed to enhance neuroplasticity and potentially cognitive function and AP may be beneficial during adolescence when important developmental changes occur | Adolescents 13–18 |
10 RCT, crossover trials |
Chronic or acute structured exercise intervention (or both) | Arithmetic | School |
| Marques et al., 2017 [53] | To perform a systematic review of the evidence on the associations between PE and school-based PA, and AP | Children and adolescents 6–18 |
12 Cross-sectional, longitudinal or intervention studies |
PE lessons or school-based PA | School grade, standardised test score, the measure of AP | School |
| Martin and Murtagh, 2017 [55] | To conduct a systematic review of classroom-based PA interventions that integrate academic content and assess the effectiveness of the interventions on PA, learning, facilitators of learning, and health outcomes | Children and adolescents 5–18 |
15 RCT, non-RCT, exploratory, pre-and post-test designs |
MVPA intervention | Standardised tests, written test, and structured interviews | School (classroom) |
| Ruiz-Ariza et al., 2017 [56] | To investigate the association of different components of physical fitness on cognitive performance and AP in adolescents | Adolescents 13–18 |
21 Cross-sectional, longitudinal or intervention |
PE, physical fitness, cardiovascular, aerobic, strength, flexibility, speed, agility, ability, coordination | Grade point average, standardised test scores | School |
| Schneider, Pharr and Bungum, 2017 [57] | To identify the impact of participating in school garden programs on fruit and vegetable preference or consumption, nutrition knowledge, PA, and standardised test scores | Children 5–13 |
14 Cluster RCT, quasi-experimental, mixed methods |
Gardening | Subject-test score | School |
| Watson et al., 2017 [32] | To evaluate the impact of classroom-based PA interventions on academic-related outcomes, and to evaluate the impact of these lessons on PA levels | Children 5–12 |
39 in SR; 16 in meta-analyses Quasi-experimental, Cluster RCT, RCT, cross over |
PA carried out during regular class time, inside or outside the classroom: active breaks, curriculum-focused active breaks, physically active lessons | School-related tasks, school grades, national standardised test scores or progress monitoring tools, and self-reported perceived academic competence | School (classroom) |
| Marques et al., 2018 [54] | To systematically review the evidence for a differential association between objective and self-reported PA and cardiorespiratory fitness on AA | Children and adolescents 6–18 |
51 cross-sectional, longitudinal and interventional study designs |
Cardiorespiratory fitness, objective and self-reported PA | School grades, standardised test scores | School |
| Daly-Smith et al., 2018 [58] | To examine the impact of acute classroom movement break and physically active learning interventions on PA, cognition, AP and classroom behaviour | Children and adolescents 4–17 |
17 RCT and non-RCT |
Classroom movement break and physically active learning | Subject-test score | School (classroom) |
| de Greeff et al., 2018 [33] | To provide a systematic review of intervention studies that investigated the effects of PA on multiple domains of executive functions, attention, and AP in preadolescent children | Children 6–12 |
31 in SR and meta-analyses Random assignment or matching with appropriate adjustments for any pre-test difference |
Acute or chronic PA | Mathematics, spelling, and reading score | NR |
| Martin et al., 2018 [34] | To assess whether lifestyle interventions improve school achievement, cognitive function, and future success in children and adolescents with obesity or overweight, compared with standard care, waiting-list control, no treatment, or an attention placebo control group | Children and adolescents 3–18 |
18 in SR; 17 in meta-analyses RCT, cluster RCT, and quasi-randomised trials with or without crossover design |
Increase PA | Grade point average, test score, standardised test scores | School, community, clinics |
| Bedard et al., 2019 [35] | To determine the impact of active classrooms compared to traditional sedentary classrooms on educational outcomes of school-aged children | Children and adolescents 3–18 |
25 in SR and meta-analyses Studies with random individuals or clusters to an intervention or control condition |
Physically active school lessons’ intervention | School grades, standardised test scores | School (classroom) |
| Gunnell et al., 2019 [59] | To extend the generalisability of previous findings on the relationship between PA and brain health in children and youth | Children and adolescents 0–18 |
83 RCT |
Acute or chronic PA | Subject-test score | School, after-school |
| Phansikar et al., 2019 [24] | To conduct a systematic review of studies done with children and adolescents, investigating the relationship between Active Commuting to School, and cognitive functioning or AA | Children and adolescents 0–18 |
12 in SR; 2 in meta-analyses RCT, pre-post, longitudinal, cross-sectional, and case-control |
Active commuting | School grades, standardised test scores | Active commuting to and from school |
| Ruiz-Hermosa et al., 2019 [23] | To evaluate the link between Active Commuting to School and cognitive performance and AA in children and adolescents | Children and adolescents 4–18 |
12 in SR; 9 in meta-analyses Observational studies (cross-sectional or baseline assessments of cohort studies) |
Active commuting | Standardised test scores, subject and classroom-test score | Active commuting to and from school |
| Singh et al., 2019 [60] | To summarise the current evidence on the effects of PA interventions on cognitive and AP in children, and formulate research priorities and recommendations | Children and adolescents 0–18 |
58 RCT and non-RCT |
PA-related intervention studies | Grade point average, school grades, standardised test score | School |
| Sneck et al., 2019 [36] | To address if school-based PA interventions have an effect on children’s mathematics performance and identify the characteristics of PA interventions with positive effects on math performance | Children and adolescents 4–16 |
29 in SR; 11 in meta-analyses RCT, cluster RCT, quasi-experimental, intervention, pre-post-test design, crossover |
PA before, during or after school lessons or at break time or was in the form of PE lessons | Mathematics grades, standardised test score | School |
| Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2020 [61] | To conduct a systematic review of the scientific literature addressing the impact of PA on AP in preadolescent young people | Children and adolescents 7–15 |
23 RCT, cluster RCT, quasi-experimental, cross-longitudinal |
Increase PA | Standardised test scores, subject-test score | School |
| Dudley and Burden, 2020 [37] | To estimate the mean effect of increasing the proportion of total curriculum time allocated to PE on student learning | Children and adolescents 3–18 |
6 in SR and meta-analyses RCT, non-RCT, quasi-experimental, controlled pre-post and longitudinal |
Increase PE | School grades, specific tests | School |
| Masini et al., 2020 [38] | To provide a systematic review of studies that investigated the effects of Active Break school-based interventions on PA levels, classroom behaviour, cognitive functions, and AP in primary school children | Children 6–13 |
22 in SR; 6 in meta-analyses RCT and observational |
Active breaks: sessions of MVPA led by teachers who introduce short bursts of PA intro the academic lesson | Standardised test scores | School (classroom) |
| Vetter et al., 2020 [62] | To investigate the efficacy of combining math lessons with PA by reporting academic and PA outcomes in primary/elementary school children | Children 6–12 years |
11 RCT, controlled trials or quasi-experimental |
Physically active lessons | School grades, standardised test score, school-related tasks | School |
AA, Academic Achievement; AP, Academic Performance; MVPA, Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity; NR, Not Reported; PA, Physical Activity; PE, Physical Education; RCT, Randomised Controlled Trial; SR, Systematic Review.