Auditory and visual reaction times in school going adolescents: effect of structured and unstructured physical training – a randomized control trial
-
Vivek Kumar Sharma
,
Vinayathan Arunachalam
Abstract
Background:
Cognitive development of adolescents is influenced by their physical activity status. Exercises requiring greater cognitive engagement are likely to have a stronger effect on their executive cognitive functions than simpler exercises.
Materials and methods:
In our randomized, single blinded, parallel group, active controlled trial (CTRI/ 2013/08/003897) the recruited healthy student volunteers, aged 12–17 years (n=439), were allocated into structured physical activity (SPA) and unstructured physical activity (USPA) groups by age and gender stratified block randomization. Physical training for the respective groups was administered by physical education instructors for 2 h per day, 6 times per week, continuously for 6 months. SPA was designed as recommended by the WHO physical activity guidelines for children and young people, while USPA included any indoor or outdoor recreational activity of the participant’s choice. This paper describes a part of our findings: comparison of auditory and visual reaction times (ART and VRT), recorded pre- and post-intervention. Data analysis was done by an investigator blinded to the allocation sequence using paired and unpaired t-test for inter- and intra-group comparisons, respectively, by following per-protocol analysis [SPA (n=172) and USPA (n=175)].
Results and Conclusion:
Both ART and VRT significantly improved in either group but the effect size was more in SPA group vs. USPA group (VRT: 0.87 vs. 0.76; ART: 0.79 vs. 0.65). Thus structuring the physical training in a cognitively engaging manner leads to greater improvements in the perceptual, executive cognitive response phenomenon of growing adolescents.
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge the school staff of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Pondicherry who helped us in conducting the study.
Funding: This is a self-funded (by the authors) study. The respective institute and the school as mentioned above provided the required equipment and the place for the study.
Conflict of interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
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Supplemental Material:
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2015-0060).
©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Racial/ethnic disparity in obesity among US youth, 1999–2013
- Prevalence of stress and stress tolerance levels among adolescent boys – a district level cross sectional study in South India
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