Physical activity boosts mental health in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Physical activity appears to be beneficial in children and adolescents with different types of neurodevelopmental disorders, with such interventions having positive effects on cognitive function, psychological well-being, internalizing, and externalizing problems, according to the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Researchers searched multiple online databases for randomized clinical trials or studies with nonrandomized designs applying physical activity interventions and reporting at least one mental health outcome in children and adolescents (5 to 17 years of age) with neurodevelopmental disorders.

A total of 76 studies involving 3,007 participants were included in the systematic review, and 59 of which were used for the meta-analysis. The outcomes were mental health related to cognitive function, psychological well-being, and internalizing or externalizing problems, as measured by neurocognitive tasks or subjective questionnaires.

Pooled data showed that physical activity interventions conferred significantly favourable effects on overall mental health (g, 0.67, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.50–0.85), cognitive function (g, 0.74, 95 percent CI, 0.53–0.95), psychological well-being (g, 0.56, 95 percent CI, 0.16–0.96), internalizing problems (g, 0.72, 95 percent CI, 0.34–1.10), and externalizing problems (g, 0.58, 95 percent CI, 0.28–0.89).

Frequency, total sessions, and total duration of the intervention moderated the effect of physical activity on overall mental health; total sessions and total duration moderated the effect on cognitive function; session duration and frequency moderated the effect on psychological well-being; and physical activity type and session duration moderated the effect on internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively.

The results were consistent regardless of the type of neurodevelopmental disorder that the participants had.