Correlation of Aerobic Fitness with Academic Performance in Medical and Nursing Students: 383 Board #220 June 1, 11

PURPOSE: Physical activity has been shown to have beneficial effects on cognition in elementary school children as well as elderly individuals. This study was conducted to determine if the relationship persists in young adults and to what extent aerobic fitness might be associated with academic performance in a graduate school setting. METHODS: Thirty-seven apparently healthy medical and nursing students (18 men) were recruited to a clinical trial to evaluate the effects of improved fitness on objective measures of cognitive ability and academic performance. Here we examined the correlations of baseline assessments of aerobic performance in terms of maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) and academic performance expressed as class ranking by overall GPA in non-clinical classes (for nursing) or cumulative block exam scores over the first year (for medical). RESULTS: The subjects were aged 27.8 (3.8) years with body mass index (BMI) 22.2 (3.3) kg/m2, VO2max 2.86 (1.07) L/min or 44.4 (8.9) ml/kg/min, maximum heart rate 186.8 (14.5)/min; mean (SD). Preliminary data for 10 medical students show a positive correlation of 0.411 between VO2max (ml/kg/min) and score (%) on Block 5 examinations (neurophysiology). CONCLUSION: The strength of correlation between aerobic capacity and an academic score within our population of medical students is consistent with previous studies conducted among elementary and junior high school students. These findings suggest that aerobic fitness may have a lasting beneficial effect on intellectual performance well into cognitive maturity.