Effects of physical education interventions on cognition and academic performance outcomes in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To determine the effects of interventions aimed at optimising the quantity and quality of physical education (PE) on cognition and academic performance in children and adolescents.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data sources: Studies from electronic databases from inception to 3 January 2021 were identified.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Experimental studies that assessed the effect of quantity-based (ie, increasing the amount of curriculum time allocated to PE) or quality-based (ie, increasing students' participation in physical activity during PE) PE interventions, or both, on changes in cognition and/or academic performance in youth (aged 5-18 years) were included.

Results: 19 trials comprising 8676 youth (46.5% girls) were included. Individual quality-based PE interventions increased cognition performance (Hedges' g=0.38, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.60; I ²=83.70%), mainly in primary education settings (g=0.48, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.89; I ²=90.43%). Academic performance, principally mathematics-related skills, was also increased by quality-based PE interventions (g=0.15, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.24; I ²=41.75%). Among these interventions, teaching strategies favoured similar results, but without heterogeneity in the results (g=0.12, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.18; I ²=0%). In contrast, quantity-based PE interventions had a very small and non-significant effect on academic performance (g=0.09, 95% CI -0.05 to 0.24; Q=11.65; I ²=48.48%). Finally, there were no differences between the three PE interventions (ie, quantity, quality, and combined PE interventions) in regard to academic performance.

Conclusion: Improving the quality of PE classes may improve students' cognition and academic performance in children and adolescents. Importantly, allocating more time for PE does not seem to compromise this performance.