Title

Role of Childhood Aerobic Fitness in Successful Street Crossing

Authors

Authors

L. Chaddock; M. B. Neider; A. Lutz; C. H. Hillman;A. F. Kramer

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Med. Sci. Sports Exerc.

Keywords

CHILDREN; COGNITION; DEVELOPMENT; EXERCISE; MULTITASKING; PHYSICAL; ACTIVITY; PREADOLESCENT CHILDREN; PERFORMANCE; MEMORY; DISTRACTION; PROFILES; VOLUME; BRAIN; Sport Sciences

Abstract

CHADDOCK, L., M. B. NEIDER, A. LUTZ, C. H. HILLMAN, and A. F. KRAMER. Role of Childhood Aerobic Fitness in Successful Street Crossing. Med. Set. Sports Exerc., Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 749-753, 2012. Increased aerobic fitness is associated with improved cognition, brain health, and academic achievement during preadolescence. Purpose: In this study, we extended these findings by examining the relationship between aerobic fitness and an everyday real-world task: street crossing. Because street crossing can be a dangerous multitask challenge and is a leading cause of injury in children, it is important to find ways to improve pedestrian safety. Methods: A street intersection was modeled in a virtual environment, and higher-fit (n = 13, 7 boys) and lower-fit (n = 13,5 boys) 8- to 10-yr-old children, as determined by VO2max axtesting, navigated trafficked roads by walking on a treadmill that was integrated with an immersive virtual world. Child pedestrians crossed the street while undistracted, listening to music, or conversing on a hands-free cellular phone. Results: Cell phones impaired street crossing success rates compared with the undistracted or music conditions for all participants (P = 0.004), a result that supports previous research. However, individual differences in aerobic fitness influenced these patterns (fitness x condition interaction, P = 0.003). Higher-fit children maintained street crossing success rates across all three conditions (paired t-tests, all P > 0.4), whereas lower-fit children showed decreased success rates when on the phone, relative to the undistracted (P = 0.018) and music (P = 0.019) conditions. Conclusions: The results suggest that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness may attenuate the impairment typically associated with multitasking during street crossing. It is possible that superior cognitive abilities of higher-fit children play a role in the performance differences during complex real-world tasks.

Journal Title

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

Volume

44

Issue/Number

4

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

749

Last Page

753

WOS Identifier

WOS:000301897200023

ISSN

0195-9131

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