Low Cardiorespiratory Fitness And Obesity Predict Standardized Test Score Performance In Children

Abstract

PURPOSE School-level data have suggested a positive relationship between standardized test scores and measures of fitness. We investigated whether overweight and aerobic fitness in school-age children is associated with standardized test performance, taking into account both ethnic and economic differences. METHODS In 2,702 5th, 7th, 9th graders (1333 males and 1370 females) attending an ethnically diverse southern California school district, aerobic fitness, as determined by the one mile run/walk test, and body composition (by body mass index, [BMI]) were determined. Standardized test score performances were accessed from the district. RESULTS The ethnicity distribution of the children was 59% non-Hispanic white, 27% Hispanic, 7% African American and 6% Asian/Pacific Islander. The frequency of parental completion of college and attendance of graduate school was 61.5% and 77.3% of the children were not eligible for free or reduced lunch fare. BMI classification revealed that at risk for overweight or overweight was present in 29.8% of the children. By ethnicity, 16.3% (mean BMI percentile = 52.8% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 47.6%–57.9%] of Asians, 22.1% (59.1% [56.8 – 61.5]) of non-Hispanic whites, 41.2% (70.1% [64.3 – 76.0]) of African American and 47.7% (74.4% [71.3 – 77.4]) of Hispanic children. Aerobic exercise performance revealed that mile times above the Fitnessgram standards were extremely common with 64.7% of children timed above the healthy fitness zone, and times for Hispanics (percent timed above Fitnessgram standards = 69.0%, mean time (min) [95% CI] = 10.69 [9.94 – 11.45]) and African Amercians (75.3%, 10.81 [10.28 – 11.35]) were markedly elevated compared to Asians (57.8%, 10.18 [9.57 – 10.79]) and non-Hispanic whites (62.3%, 10.16 [9.65 0 10.618]). After controlling for ethnic and economic differences, students whose BMI exceeded age and sex-specific standards or whose one mile run/walk times exceeded California Fitnessgram standards scored lower on California standardized math, reading and language tests than students with desirable body composition or fitness levels. Ethnic differences in standardized test scores were also noted, with Asians and non-Hispanic whites scoring higher than African Americans and Hispanics, which was consistent with ethnic differences noted for BMI and aerobic fitness. CONCLUSION High aerobic fitness and normal body composition are both predictors of superior performance on standardized tests. More research is needed to investigate the mechanisms by which cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition are related to children's performance on standardized math, reading and language tests