United States—The effects of physical fitness on kids include unexpected advantages that we are only now discovering in our latest research.
New Research Reveals Surprising Links
Investigative research published on April 29th, 2021, in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that performing adequate exercises could be a remedy for such psychological conditions as depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as reported by HealthDay.
More Exercise, Better Mental Well-being
And the more exercise, the better: All three aspects of physical fitness—higher performance in cardiovascular activities and better muscular endurance and strength individually—positively impact mental well-being.
Such results coincide with the alarm concerning the heightening numbers of mental health disorders among the youth in the US.
Insights from Taiwan’s Research
The researchers from Taiwan carried out the new study, which compared information from the Taiwan National Student Fitness Tests and the National Insurance Research Database, which records medical claims, diagnoses, prescriptions, and other medical information. Researchers have made anonymous data to compare their health fitness with their mental health status.
Key Findings and Implications
Students were evaluated using variables, including the mental health index, 800-meter time for aerobic fitness, sit-ups for muscle endurance, and standing broad jump for muscle power.
What did they discover? Better performance among all activities indicated lower rates of mental health complications. The study revealed that a decrease of 30 seconds in the 800-meter time, apart from other things, reduced the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and ADHD in girls. In boys, this was associated with lower anxiety and a substantially lowered risk of ADHD.
Conversely, a rise of five sit-ups per minute was associated with a reduction in the chance of experiencing ADHD symptoms in boys, and it was connected with the risk of depression and anxiety in girls decreasing.
“These findings suggest the potential of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness as protective factors in mitigating the onset of mental health disorders among children and adolescents,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Urgent Call to Action
According to US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, the mental health problem in the country has been labeled as a national crisis that requires immediate multifaceted treatment, including strategies that sprawl adolescent mental health. In a 2021 warning on this matter, which is a rarely delivered public alarm, he set an example to follow. Statistics at the time revealed alarming trends: The suicide rate in the US for youth ages 10 to 19 increased by 40% (from 2001 through 2019), while emergency visits for self-harm increased by 88 percent.
Looking Ahead
Experts assume that heavy screen use competes with sleep, exercise, and in-person correspondence, all of which are believed to be important for the person’s development, as reported by HealthDay.
“The [new] finding underscores the need for further research into targeted physical fitness programs,” the researchers concluded. Meanwhile, exercise programs “hold significant potential as primary preventative interventions against mental disorders in children and adolescents,” they wrote.