Finnish Study Finds Good Physical Fitness From Childhood Protects Mental Health

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

A recent Finnish study has found that good physical fitness from childhood to adolescence is linked to better mental health in adolescence. These results are significant and timely, as mental health problems are currently a major societal challenge, affecting up to 25–30% of young people. These findings suggest that improving physical fitness from childhood can help prevent mental health problems.

The paper was published in the journal Sports Medicine.

In a study by the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä and the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Eastern Finland, the physical fitness of 241 adolescents was followed from childhood to adolescence for eight years. The study showed that better cardiorespiratory fitness and improvements in it from childhood to adolescence were associated with fewer stress and depressive symptoms in adolescence.

Additionally, the study found that better motor fitness from childhood to adolescence was associated with better cognitive function and fewer stress and depressive symptoms. However, the association between motor fitness and depressive symptoms was weaker than the one between cardiorespiratory fitness and depressive symptoms. Screen time measured in adolescence partly explained the associations of cardiorespiratory fitness and motor fitness with mental health.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-10-finnish-good-physical-childhood-mental.html