Active Commuting to School and Cognitive Performance in Adolescents: the AVENA Study

Overview

Journal Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med

Publisher American Medical Association

Specialty Pediatrics

Date 2010 Dec 8

PMID 21135316

Citations 26

Authors

David Martinez-Gomez

Jonatan R Ruiz

Sonia Gomez-Martinez

Palma Chillon

J Pablo Rey-Lopez

Ligia E Diaz

Ruth Castillo

Oscar L Veiga

Ascension Marcos

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To examine the associations between active commuting to school and cognitive performance in adolescents.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Five cities (Granada, Madrid, Murcia, Santander, and Zaragoza) in Spain.

Participants: A total of 1700 adolescents (892 girls) aged 13 to 18.5 years.

Main Exposures: Mode and duration of transportation to school and participation in extracurricular physical activity were self-reported.

Main Outcome Measures: Cognitive performance (verbal, numeric, and reasoning abilities and an overall score) was measured by the Spanish version of the SRA Test of Educational Ability.

Results: Active commuting to school was associated with better cognitive performance (all P < .05) in girls but not in boys, independent of potential confounders including participation in extracurricular physical activity. In addition, adolescent girls who spent more than 15 minutes actively commuting to school had better scores in 3 of the 4 cognitive performance variables (all P < .05) than those who spent less time actively commuting to school (≤15 minutes) as well as better scores in all of the cognitive performance variables (all P < .001) than girls inactively commuting.

Conclusion: Active commuting to school and its duration may positively influence cognitive performance in adolescent girls.

Citing Articles

Effectiveness of an Ecological Model-Based Active Transport Education Program on Physical and Mental Health in High School Students (MOV-ES Project): Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Merellano-Navarro E, Godoy-Cumillaf A, Collado-Mateo D, Aguilar-Valdes M, Torres-Mejias J, Almonacid-Fierro A Healthcare (Basel). 2024; 12(13).

PMID: 38998794 PMC: 11241461. DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12131259.

Association between the Duration of the Active Commuting to and from School, and Cognitive Performance in Urban Portuguese Adolescents.

Rodrigues A, Antunes H, Alves R, Correia A, Lopes H, Sabino B Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(23).

PMID: 36497762 PMC: 9735698. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192315692.

Research on the Impact of the Built Environment on the Characteristics of Metropolis Rail Transit School Commuting-Take Wuhan as an Example.

Peng J, Qi J, Cui C, Yan J, Dai Q, Yang H Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021; 18(18).

PMID: 34574808 PMC: 8470157. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18189885.

Implementation of School Remote Drop-off Walking Programs: Results from Qualitative Interviews.

Bejarano C, Koester M, Steel C, Carlson J J Transp Health. 2021; 22.

PMID: 34336596 PMC: 8323835. DOI: 10.1016/j.jth.2021.101126.

Associations of mode and distance of commuting to school with cardiorespiratory fitness in Slovenian schoolchildren: a nationwide cross-sectional study.

Jurak G, Soric M, Sember V, Djuric S, Starc G, Kovac M BMC Public Health. 2021; 21(1):291.

PMID: 33541296 PMC: 7863324. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-10326-6.