Teens can improve their academic performance with moderate to vigorous physical activities, a latest study by U.K. researchers suggests.
The study, in particular, also found that exercises can help teen girls improve their performance in science.
The researchers examined data of over 5000 U.K. children who were a part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The study tracked 14,000 children in 1991 and 1992. They calculated the children's daily physical activity with an accelerometer, a device worn on an elastic belt. The participants were aged 11 and their physical activity was tracked for three to seven days.
According to the researchers, the average daily number of minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise was 29 for boys and 18 for girls. This is much less than the recommended time of 60 minutes for exercise.
They then looked into the academic performances of the participating children in English, math and science. They analysed the scores of the 11-year-olds through compulsory national test key stage 1, 13-year-olds with compulsory national test, key stage 2, and those aged 15 and 16 through General Certificate of Secondary Education; GCSE; key stage 4.
The results showed that children of all age groups performed well in all the three subjects. Girls, in particular, did better than boys in science after moderate to vigorous exercise.
"This is an important finding, especially in light of the current UK and European Commission policy aimed at increasing the number of females in science subjects," the authors wrote in the study.
"If moderate to vigorous physical activity does influence academic attainment this has implications for public health and education policy by providing schools and parents with a potentially important stake in meaningful and sustained increases in physical activity," they said.
