Objectively measured physical activity, sedentary time, extracurricular habits, and IQ in 7 to 8 years old children

Abstract

The effects of an active lifestyle including extracurricular habits on children’s cognitive function are topics of health and human development, besides that the maintenance of sedentary behavior seems to be related to cognitive function. Considering an active lifestyle, studies present mixed results in terms of cognitive factors, physical activity exposures and tests applied. Existent studies identified that objectively measured physical activity should be more explored to further help elucidate these results since this type of measure assessed by accelerometer provides accurate time spent in free-living daily physical activity. Moreover, children who spend time in specific sedentary activities and have active extracurricular habits present higher academic achievement. Therefore, it was conducted a cross-sectional study in 609 children at 7 and 8 years old from Pelotas, Brazil. WASI scale was applied to evaluate intelligence; total IQ, verbal IQ and execution IQ were considered. Reading practice was associated with verbal IQ and execution IQ and extracurricular physical activities were associated with execution IQ. Accelerometer analyses indicate an association for sedentary time and total IQ and execution IQ. Light PA was inversely associated with execution IQ. Moderate PA was inversely associated with execution IQ and vigorous PA was not associated with IQ. Significant associations were found in the analyses between sedentary time, physical activity, and cognitive function.