title: The relationship between low-income and minority children's physical activity and academic-related outcomes: a review of the literature.
abstract: This article explores an innovative strategy for battling the obesity epidemic. The strategy involves demonstrating to policy makers and education leaders the value of promoting physical activity in school as a way of enhancing academic-related outcomes to narrow the current achievement gap. A literature review was conducted to ascertain the feasibility of this strategy. Seven studies that examined the relationship between physical activity or fitness and academic-related outcomes were reviewed. Although more research is needed in this area, the majority of the articles reviewed found that regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity, a positive relationship exists between physical activity and academic-related outcomes. These findings suggest that integrating more physical activity into the school day may be an effective strategy to reduce both health disparities and the achievement gap.
authors.affiliation: California State University, Northridge, CA, USA. merav.efrat@csun.edu
authors.forename: Merav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Efrat
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups; D009043:Motor Activity; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011203:Poverty; D012923:Social Class