Hit the Gym, Get that A?
Written by Nicholas Kaiser
Edited by Connie Quan
July 31st 2021
Edited by Connie Quan
July 31st 2021
How is it that some students manage to play sports for hours each week yet still manage to be at the top of their class? How can some students spend almost as much time pumping iron as pumping out notes and still see the results that they want? In this study, a team of researchers sought to find out the connection between academic performance (AP) and physical fitness (PF) in a group of several thousand Chinese students. They did indeed find that connection, and it proved that a relationship between physical fitness and higher grade point averages existed.
So what did they do? First, the researchers considered several confounders, or variables that may affect the results and cause a bias. These included smartphone usage, food, sleep, and parental education level. Data was collected from 2896 willing sophomores across 3 universities by 42 trained researchers. Students gave information on their gender, age, parental education levels, height, and weight before beginning the study. They went on to answer detailed questionnaires on their lifestyle behaviors as well before being assessed by the researchers. Lifestyle behaviors included the above confounders as well as amount of leisure cycling and aerobic exercise engaged in over the course of 7 days. GPAs were collected from the 2017-2018 academic year and divided into three groups: low AP (bottom 25%), medium AP (middle 50%), and high AP (top 25%). Physical fitness was measured across 8 components and similarly categorized into the above 3 groupings. At the end of the study, the averages, standard deviations, and percentages with confounders taken into account were used to quantify the relationship between AP and PF.
It was found that those belonging to the highest AP grouping outperformed their lower AP peers on several of the PF indicators, and that some indicators predicted GPA. Students belonging to the highest and intermediate PF levels were respectively 60% and 40% less likely to have poor AP compared to those with poor PF. It was found that both aerobic exercise and muscular strength influenced GPA. Based on these results, it can be concluded that PF plays a key role in Chinese college students’ AP, and that this relationship could be enough to advocate for PF as a way to improve AP.
(OR stands for odds ratio of lower academic success compared to the poor PF category)
Why bother with this study in the first place? After all, the effects of physical fitness on weight, psychological well-being, and disease are already well known. However, these alone do not seem to be enough motivation. Only 10-17% of college students in China meet the standards for moderate physical activity. In the U.S., this number is around 37.6%, according to a study by the CDC. This is a growing health crisis, especially coupled with rising obesity rates in both countries. This study on AP and PF aimed to validate prior research and aid in pushing for the development of active communities in universities. It was a success, and as a result, the researchers suggested interventions to ensure that students stay active to a certain extent. So maybe try hitting the gym instead of hitting the sofa next time you don’t do so hot in a class?