The impact of physical activity on academic performance in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis

In contemporary education, the reduction of time allocated to physical activity under the pressure of heavy academic demands has become an increasingly prominent concern. At the same time, the World Health Organization has emphasized that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is beneficial to students' cognitive and academic development. However, existing findings on the effects of physical activity on the academic performance of children and adolescents remain inconsistent, and the optimal intervention characteristics for different academic domains have yet to be clearly established.

This meta-analysis sought to systematically evaluate the effects of physical activity on the academic performance of children and adolescents aged 8-19 years and to explore whether pooled effects differed across intervention type, session duration, frequency, and intervention period for different academic outcomes, including mathematics, reading, spelling, and overall academic performance.

A comprehensive search of PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, EBSCO, and the Cochrane Library was conducted up to January 10, 2026, to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining physical activity interventions and academic performance in the target population. Two reviewers independently carried out the screening process, extracted the relevant data, and evaluated methodological quality with the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. The meta-analysis was undertaken in Review Manager 5.3 under a random-effects model, and the results were reported as standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Sensitivity analyses were conducted, and funnel plots were interpreted descriptively where appropriate.

A total of 15 randomized controlled trials were included. Pooled analyses showed small but statistically significant effects of physical activity on mathematics performance (SMD = 0.06, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.10, p = 0.02) and reading performance (SMD = 0.10, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.16, p < 0.001). A statistically significant pooled effect was also observed for overall academic performance (SMD = 0.36, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.44, p < 0.001), although this finding was based on a relatively small number of studies. No statistically significant association was observed for spelling performance (SMD = 0.08, 95% CI - 0.03 to 0.19, p = 0.15), although the evidence base for this outcome was very limited. In exploratory subgroup analyses, some pooled effects reached statistical significance within specific subgroups; however, these findings were based on a small number of studies for several comparisons, reflected within-subgroup pooled estimates only, and should be interpreted cautiously.

Physical activity interventions may be associated with small improvements in mathematics and reading. Evidence for overall academic performance appeared potentially favorable but remained limited, and evidence for spelling remained too sparse to support firm conclusions. The findings should be interpreted with caution given the broad age range of participants and the limited number of studies in several subgroup and outcome analyses.

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420261294809, PROSPERO (CRD420261294809).