Abstract

Physical fitness is considered a protective factor for children’s general health and has been related to enhanced cognitive functioning. However, it appears that cognition could be affected in children with overweight or obesity. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between physical fitness components and fluid intelligence in normal-weight and overweight/obese children. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 317 schoolchildren participated (165 boys, 52.05%), aged between six and 11 years old (1st to 5th grade), belonging to a public school in the south of Brazil. Psychologists evaluated fluid intelligence through the Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrix Test. The physical fitness evaluation followed the procedures of the “Brazil Sports Project”. Weight and height were measured to determine body mass index and generalized linear regression analyses were used with a 95% confidence interval. Our results showed that agility was inversely associated with fluid intelligence only in the overweight/obese group (β = −1.506; p = 0.01). Cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness were not associated with fluid intelligence. In conclusion, agility was the only physical fitness component related to fluid intelligence, and this relationship was found exclusively in overweight/obese schoolchildren.

摘要

身体健康被认为是儿童整体健康的保护因素，并且与增强的认知功能有关。然而，似乎超重或肥胖儿童的认知可能会受​​到影响。本研究旨在确定正常体重和超重/肥胖儿童的体能成分与流体智力之间的关系。在这项横断面研究中，共有 317 名学童（165 名男孩，52.05%）参与，年龄在 6 至 11 岁（1 至 5 年级），属于巴西南部的一所公立学校。心理学家通过乌鸦的彩色渐进矩阵测试评估流体智力。体能评价按照“巴西体育项目”的程序进行。测量体重和身高以确定体重指数，并使用具有 95% 置信区间的广义线性回归分析。我们的研究结果表明，敏捷性仅在超重/肥胖组中与流体智力呈负相关（β = -1.506；p  = 0.01)。心肺和肌肉健康与流体智力无关。总之，敏捷性是与流体智力相关的唯一身体健康成分，这种关系仅在超重/肥胖的学童中发现。