Background

Growing evidence suggests that physical activity (PA) could improve cognitive performance in youths, but whether these effects occur from early childhood remains unclear.

Objective

To summarize evidence on the effects of PA interventions on cognitive performance in early childhood.

Methods

We performed a systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and PsycINFO (from inception to 6 September 2023) for randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of PA interventions (≥ 3 weeks) on cognitive-related outcomes in early childhood (3–6 years). We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis when five or more studies assessed a given outcome. The potential moderating role of participant (e.g., age) and intervention characteristics (e.g., duration, volume, intensity, cognitive engagement) was also assessed.

Results

We found a total of 24 studies (N = 3483 children) that were deemed to be of overall fair methodological quality. PA interventions were supervised and lasted between 3 and 24 weeks. The most common session duration was 30 min, with a frequency of two sessions per week. Pooled analyses revealed that PA interventions have positive effects on all analysed outcomes, including attention (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.18–0.79, p = 0.002), inhibition (SMD = 0.45, 95% CI 0.06–0.84, p = 0.022), working memory (SMD = 0.50, 95% CI 0.18–0.82, p = 0.002), cognitive flexibility (SMD = 0.39, 0.15–0.62, p = 0.002) and vocabulary (SMD = 1.18, 0.19–2.16, p = 0.019). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the benefits in all cases except for inhibition (p = 0.062). No consistent differences were found relating to any moderator variable.

Conclusions

Although further research is warranted, our findings suggest that PA interventions may improve cognitive performance in early childhood, particularly in the domains of attention, inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility and vocabulary. These findings might support the implementation of PA interventions from early childhood.

PROSPERO Registration

CRD42021249319.

中文翻译：

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幼儿期的体力活动和认知表现：随机对照试验的系统回顾和荟萃分析

背景

越来越多的证据表明，体力活动 (PA) 可以改善青少年的认知表现，但这些影响是否从幼儿期开始仍不清楚。

客观的

总结 PA 干预对儿童早期认知表现影响的证据。

方法

我们在 PubMed、Scopus、Web of Science 和 PsycINFO（从开始到 2023 年 9 月 6 日）中对评估 PA 干预（≥ 3 周）对幼儿期认知相关结果（3-6年）。当五项或更多研究评估给定结果时，我们进行了随机效应荟萃分析。还评估了参与者（例如年龄）和干预特征（例如持续时间、数量、强度、认知参与度）的潜在调节作用。

结果

我们发现总共 24 项研究（N  = 3483 名儿童）被认为具有总体公平的方法学质量。 PA 干预受到监督并持续 3 至 24 周。最常见的会话持续时间为 30 分钟，频率为每周两次。汇总分析显示，PA 干预措施对所有分析结果均产生积极影响，包括注意力（标准化均差 (SMD) = 0.49，95% 置信区间 (CI) 0.18–0.79，p  = 0.002）、抑制（SMD = 0.45，95%） CI 0.06–0.84，p  = 0.022）、工作记忆（SMD = 0.50，95% CI 0.18–0.82，p  = 0.002）、认知灵活性（SMD = 0.39、0.15–0.62，p  = 0.002）和词汇量（SMD = 1.18） ，0.19–2.16，p  = 0.019）。敏感性分析证实了除抑制之外的所有情况下的益处（p  = 0.062）。没有发现与任何调节变量相关的一致差异。

结论

尽管需要进一步研究，但我们的研究结果表明，PA 干预可能会改善儿童早期的认知表现，特别是在注意力、抑制、工作记忆、认知灵活性和词汇领域。这些发现可能支持从幼儿期开始实施 PA 干预措施。

普洛斯彼罗注册

CRD42021249319。