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Physical activity, cognition and academic performance: an analysis of mediating and confounding relationships in primary school children

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, July 2018
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (78th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (64th percentile)

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Title
Physical activity, cognition and academic performance: an analysis of mediating and confounding relationships in primary school children
Published in
BMC Public Health, July 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12889-018-5863-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Adrian McPherson, Lisa Mackay, Jule Kunkel, Scott Duncan

Abstract

Exploring the relationship between physical activity, cognition and academic performance in children is an important but developing academic field. One of the key tasks for researchers is explaining how the three factors interact. The aim of this study was to develop and test a conceptual model that explains the associations among physical activity, cognition, academic performance, and potential mediating factors in children. Data were sourced from 601 New Zealand children aged 6-11 years. Weekday home, weekday school, and weekend physical activity was measured by multiple pedometer step readings, cognition by four measures from the CNS Vital Signs assessment, and academic performance from the New Zealand Ministry of Education electronic Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (e-asTTle) reading and maths scores. A Structured Equation Modelling approach was used to test two models of variable relationships. The first model analysed the physical activity-academic performance relationship, and the second model added cognition to determine the mediating effect of cognition on the physical activity-academic performance association. Multigroup analysis was used to consider confounding effects of gender, ethnicity and school socioeconomic decile status. The initial model identified a significant association between physical activity and academic performance (r = 0.225). This direct association weakened (r = 0.121) when cognition was included in the model, demonstrating a partial mediating effect of cognition. While cognition was strongly associated with academic performance (r = 0.750), physical activity was also associated with cognition (r = 0.138). Subgroups showed similar patterns to the full sample, but the smaller group sizes limited the strength of the conclusions. This cross-sectional study demonstrates a direct association between physical activity and academic performance. Furthermore, and importantly, this study shows the relationship between physical activity and academic performance is supported by an independent relationship between physical activity and cognition. Larger sample sizes are needed to investigate confounding factors of gender, age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Future longitudinal analyses could investigate whether increases in physical activity can improve both cognition and academic performance.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 345 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 345 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 40 12%
Student > Bachelor 40 12%
Student > Ph. D. Student 33 10%
Researcher 22 6%
Student > Doctoral Student 14 4%
Other 59 17%
Unknown 137 40%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Sports and Recreations 72 21%
Social Sciences 23 7%
Nursing and Health Professions 20 6%
Medicine and Dentistry 19 6%
Psychology 16 5%
Other 46 13%
Unknown 149 43%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 May 2021.
All research outputs
#4,032,856
of 24,593,959 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#4,480
of 16,262 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#72,885
of 334,490 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#114
of 314 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,593,959 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 16,262 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 72% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 334,490 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 314 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its contemporaries.