Childhood cognitive ability and physical activity in young adulthood

Childhood cognitive ability is associated with lifestyle in adulthood, including self-reported physical activity (PA). We examined whether childhood cognitive ability is associated with objectively measured PA and sedentary time (ST) in young adulthood. Method: Participants of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (n × 500) underwent tests of general reasoning, visuomotor integration, verbal competence, and language comprehension at the age of 56 months yielding a general intelligence factor score; at the age of 25 years they wore omnidirectional accelerometers for 9 days (range × 4-10 days) measuring overall daily PA (counts per minute, cpm), ST, and light and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (minutes), and completed a questionnaire on occupational, commuting, leisure-time conditioning and nonconditioning PA. Results: After adjustment for sex, age, BMI-for-age SD score at 56 months. and mean of valid minutes of measurement period for PA, per each 1 SD increase in the childhood general intelligence factor score, overall daily PA decreased by -8.99 cpm/day, ST increased by 14.93.