Physical activity is correlated to higher academic achievement

As the childhood obesity epidemic worsens every year, a new report shows yet another reason to motivate children to become more active. According to a new study conducted by the New York City Health Department and Department of Education, students who are more active perform better academically than their less active peers.

The report uses data from New York City public school system, which has over 1.1 million students enrolled. Every school has a comprehensive physical education program. Data from the NYC FITNESSGRAM, an assessment program used to qualify the schools' effectiveness of the physical education curriculum, found that the most fit students performed an average of 36 percentile points higher than the least fit students.

Source: "Childhood obesity is a serious concern: Higher levels of fitness associated with better academic performance." NYC Vital Signs.

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