Associations of 24-h movement behaviours and health-related physical fitness with educational outcomes among adolescents: a systematic review

The transition period of adolescence involves many changes regarding biology, cognition, and psychology that could influence health behaviour and educational outcomes. This systematic review sought to examine the relationship between various components of 24-h movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep), health-related physical fitness, and educational outcomes in 9–19-year-old individuals. This review was registered on PROSPERO and performed following the PRISMA guidelines. Searching of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library databases revealed peer-reviewed studies published in English during 2005–2025. This search strategy led to a selection of 2,090 articles; 1,546 of them were duplicates and discarded, 544 records underwent title and abstract screening, 71 full-text papers were reviewed for inclusion criteria, and 22 studies were included into the narrative synthesis. Mainly, the evidence was related to physical activity and health-related physical fitness, which showed generally positive relationships with educational and learning-related cognitive outcomes. However, the results differed depending on the study design, population features, measures used, and educational outcomes. Evidence for sleep and sedentary or screen-based behaviours is scarce, as well as for all three types of movement behaviours assessed simultaneously. As a result, there is evidence of positive relationships between physical activity and physical fitness and some educational outcomes; however, there is no sufficient evidence of positive relationships of adherence to all 24-h movement behaviours to educational outcomes.