Kids who are physically fit will receive brain benefits as teens Better childhood performance on shuttle sprints is associated with improved cognition as a teenager Better cardio fitness means less stress and depression FRIDAY, Oct. 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Kids with good physical fitness are more likely to grow into teens with better mental health and brain function, a new study has found. Children who performed better at shuttle sprints scored better on cognitive tests as teenagers, researchers found.
In addition, better cardio fitness in childhood added up to lower levels of and depression among teenagers, results show. “Our results should encourage policymakers as well as parents and guardians to see the significance of physical fitness more holistically, as poor physical fitness can increase mental health challenges and impair cognitive skills needed for learning,” said lead researcher , a senior lecturer of sports and exercise medicine at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. In the study, researchers followed the physical fitness of 241 Finnish kids for eight years, tracking them from childhood through to adolescence.
Tests of physical fitness were compared to scores of kids’ thinking ability and emotional health. The findings, published recently in the journal , showed that the more fit the kids were, the less stress and depression they reported as teenagers. This could be because kids with better physical health have more self-esteem and better mental res.
