The Interrelationship Between Physical Activity and Cognition in Turkish Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional study

Abstract

Purpose: Although being physically active may not seem more important to medical students than their classes, physical activity is important for human health. As seen in different methodological studies, physical activity affects cognitive functions. Few of these studies are related to youth. Therefore, we aimed to analyze medical students physical activity and cognitive parameters and their association between each other in cross sectional study.
 Materials and Methods:138 students from all classes of a medical faculty were included in the study. Medical students completed three scales. Physical activity was determined by the IPAQ-SF. Cognitive variables were measured by autonomous learning and cognitive flexibility scale. 
 Results: The results revealed that total, vigorous and moderate physical activity differed significantly between female and male students. Similarly independence of learning was influenced by sex assigned at birth. First three years students’ cognitive flexibility scores were higher than last three year ones (p=0.001). Cognitive flexibility has decreased over the years in medicine. 
 Conclusion: According to the correlation analysis reported in the study, there was no conclusive link between physical activity and cognitive abilities. Cognitive function studies such as autonomous learning and cognitive flexibility, whose effectiveness has not been the subject of much research in medical education and physical activities should be investigated more in future.