![]() ![]() The children were required to run continuously between two points which were 20 m apart. The multistage 20 m shuttle test described by Leger and Lambert ( 8) was used as an index of physical fitness. ![]() The tests were administered by trained psychologists in the morning hours. Block design, object assembly and coding were the performance tasks. ![]() The verbal tests were comprehension, arithmetic, vocabulary and analogies. For the purpose of the present study, 4 verbal, and 3 performance tests from the battery of tests were used. The test contains both verbal and performance subtests. The Indian adaptation of WISC II, Malin’s Intelligence Scale for Indian Children ( 7) was used to measure cognitive performance. Children underwent a physical examination and apparently healthy children with no history of chronic diseases, physical or mental handicap and not severely undernourished (<-3SD for weight for age and -3SD height for age z scores of the National center for health statistics / WHO standards) ( 6) were invited to participate in the study. Height, weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) were recorded. Socio-demographic details were obtained from all children. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Review Board of St. The school also provided written permission to conduct the study on its children, on the school premises. The children gave oral assent while the parents/legal guardian provided written informed consent. From a total of 200 children who were part of a larger interventional study on the effects of yoga practices on cognitive performance, physical fitness was assessed in 100 randomly selected children at baseline before the start of yoga intervention. All participants were recruited from a single school in Urban Bangalore, India. The sample size consisted of hundred, 7-9 year old healthy (as assessed by clinical examination by medical professionals) school going children hailing from a socio-economically disadvantaged background (average monthly income of 2000 INR, equivalent to 46 USD approximately). In the present study, we examined the association between aerobic fitness and cognitive functions in 7-9 year old school going children from a socio-economically disadvantaged background living in Bangalore, India. To the best of our knowledge there are no known published Indian studies examining physical activity and cognition in school children from an economically disadvantaged background. Most of the published studies on physical exercise and cognition in children have come from the West with few published studies from developing countries. In a recent randomized controlled trial of aerobic exercise training on cognition in overweight children, there was a significant improvement in executive functions in children in the high dose exercise group compared to controls ( 5). In the last two decades there has been a resurgence of interest in the area of physical fitness, cognitive and academic performance in children and adolescents. However, a meta-regression analysis concluded that the empirical literature did not support a link between cardiovascular physical fitness and cognitive performance ( 4), but the number of studies that had young children as subjects was very small. A recent review examining the effects of aerobic exercise on various cognitive tasks found that the optimal intensity for impacting cognitive tasks covered a wide range (~40–80% VO 2 max) and exercise duration of more than 20 minutes was most efficient in increasing the performance on perceptual and decisional tasks ( 3). Experimental studies using either a cross sectional design or test-post test comparison demonstrated a significant positive relationship between physical activity and cognitive performance in children ( 2). A recent meta-analysis on school based physical activity and cognition showed that physical activity had a positive influence on concentration, memory and classroom behavior ( 1). ![]()
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