COMBINED ASSOCIATION OF CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WITH ADOLESCENT INHIBITORY CONTROL

Adolescents undergo intense physical and hormonal changes that impact cognition. Although there is evidence linking cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and physical exercise to inhibitory control in adolescents, the combined association of these predictors is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the combined association of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and physical activity (PA) with inhibitory control in adolescents. A total of 180 adolescents (16.7 ± 1.2 years) from IFPB were included in this cross-sectional study. CRF was assessed using the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test, and participants were classified as having “low CRF” or “high CRF.” The Habitual Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents was used to categorize participants as either “exercisers” or “sedentary.” Participants were divided into four groups: “low CRF + sedentary,” “low CRF + exercise,” “high CRF + sedentary,” and “high CRF + exercise.” Inhibitory control was assessed using the modified Flanker task (E-Prime v3.0), considering reaction time (RT) and accuracy rate. A generalized gamma model was used to estimate coefficients (β) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between groups, with “High CRF + Exercise” as the reference group, adjusting for confounding variables. The “Sedentary + Low CRF” group showed longer RTs in both the congruent (β = 58.3 ms; 95% CI: 15.1; 100.8; p = 0.007) and incongruent phases (β = 59.2 ms; 95% CI: 14.7; 103.6; p = 0.009) compared to the reference group. No significant differences were found in other group comparisons for either the incongruent or congruent phases (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the negative relationship between CRF and sedentary behavior is associated with poorer inhibitory control performance in adolescents.