The effects of sports activity on cognition in nine- and ten-year-old children

PURPOSE: Engagement in sports is associated with cognitive and academic functioning in youth. However, heterogenous methodology has resulted in mixed findings across the literature. We propose a new method for investigating how sports activity may affect cognition through metabolic equivalents (MET)-minutes per week during sports engagement and compare it against total number of sports engaged. METHODS: Using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, 9,973 children between the ages of 9 and 10 years old were included. Parent report of children's engagement in sports over the past year were utilized to calculate total MET-minutes per week. Youth participants completed the National Institutes of Health Toolbox. Generalized Additive Mixed Models were run to examine the relationship between MET-minutes on cognition, while controlling for Body Mass Index. The contribution of MET-minutes compared to total count of sports on cognitive performance were compared using Akaike Information Criterion values. RESULTS: Both total MET-minutes per week and past-year total sports were non-linearly associated with increased performance on multiple tasks of executive functioning and decreased expressive vocabulary. MET-minutes were shown to contribute more robustly to models of cognition than total number of sports. CONCLUSIONS: Past year MET-minutes per week was associated with increased cognitive performance, particularly in the domain of executive functioning, and was more sensitive to differences in cognition in contrast to total sports engagement. Indicating that greater measurement sensitivity for physical activity may increase predictive power on cognitive performance outcomes. Our findings provide more support for increasing physical activity in youth to promote cognitive trajectories.