Movement on a regular basis keeps kids healthy and fit for school. The benefits of sports have been demonstrated in numerous studies. Now a research team in the Department of Sport and Health Sciences at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has, for the first time in a study, confirmed the correlation between physical fitness, concentration and health-related quality of life for primary school pupils.
The study involved 3285 girls and 3248 boys from Bavaria's Berchtesgadener Land district. The key criteria were physical strength and endurance, the ability to concentrate and health-related quality of life, as determined by the scientists according to internationally standardized test procedures.
Motor Skills at an Early Stage
The results of the study show the higher the level of children's physical fitness, the better they can concentrate and the higher their health-related quality of life. While the boys did better on the fitness tests, the girls performed better in terms of concentration and quality of life values.
At the same time, in all tests for physical fitness overweight and obese children had significantly poorer results than underweight children and children with normal body weight. Obese children also had significantly poorer values for health-related quality of life on the whole, physical well-being, self-esteem as well as well-being in friendships and at school.
Another important result of the study: "Primary school pupils with good physical fitness and a good ability to concentrate are more likely to make it to secondary grammar schools," says Prof. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz, holder of the TUM Chair of Preventive Pediatrics and Dean of the TUM Department of Sport and Health Sciences.
Community Collaboration
Dr. Thorsten Schulz, head of the study team at TUM: "Based on the results of the study, since 2019 the Berchtesgadener Land District Administration Office has been giving all first grade pupils in the region a voucher for a one year membership in a sports club. This is a great example for how different stakeholders can work together and help motivate children to be more athletically active."
StepUp Note
This research documents what we intuitively feel is true: physical fitness, concentration, and quality of life are all positively related. A primary goal for every StepUp exercise is 1 minute of sustained, self-directed attention for movement-based learning. Jumping exercises challenge endurance while stepping exercises challenge coordination. Talking while moving challenges processing speed and word retrieval. A daily StepUp program can add sports advantages to our students’ quality of life through a 10-minute daily practice program.