The Influence of Aerobic Fitness on the Relationship between ...

Universal Journal of Public Health 3(4): 145-152, 2015 DOI: 10.13189/ujph.2015.030402

http://www.hrpub.org

The Influence of Aerobic Fitness on the Relationship between Academic Performance and Motor Proficiency Ryan Alexander1,*, John A. Hay1, Jian Liu1, Brent E. Faught1, Joe Engemann1, John Cairney2 1

Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, Canada Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Canada

2

Copyright © 2015 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License

Abstract Purpose: To determine whether physical fitness mediates the relationship between academic performance and motor proficiency in children. Methods: The academic achievement of 1864 students (F:926, M:938, age 11.91 (SD:0.34) from the Niagara Region of Ontario was derived from the average of provincial standardized tests for reading, writing, and mathematics. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Performance (short-form) determined motor proficiency. Fitness (peak oxygen uptake) was established with the 20-metre shuttle run multistage test. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling identified several significant predictors of academic performance. After controlling for age (p=0.7002), gender (p