The effects of chronic physical activity interventions on executive functions in children aged 3–7 years: A meta-analysis

Abstract Objectives To use a quantitative approach to examine the effects of chronic physical activity (PA) interventions on executive functions (EFs) in children aged 3–7 years. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched from their inception to December 2019. Intervention studies with a control group that examined the effects of chronic PA interventions on EFs among children aged 3–7 years were included in this meta-analysis. Lastly, subgroup analyses were conducted to examine the potential modifying effects of chronic PA intervention’s characteristics and study quality. Results A total of 10 studies were included in this meta-analysis with a total of 716 participants. The fixed-effects model was used to estimate the pooled effect sizes since heterogeneity across included studies was not significant. The summary effects revealed that chronic PA interventions have a small but positive effects on participants’ overall EFs [standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.20–0.50] as well as inhibition (SMD = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.12–0.62) and working memory (SMD = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.02–0.46) domains and a moderate effect on the cognitive flexibility domain (SMD = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.28–1.05). Lastly, the pooled effect was not significantly modified by intervention duration, session length, or frequency. Conclusions Chronic PA interventions, especially PA plus cognitive challenges interventions, may be a promising way to promote the development of multiple aspects of EFs in children aged 3–7 years.