'An hour of exercise makes kids brighter'

Children who exercise for at least an hour after school can concentrate better, research suggests.

A study of children aged between seven and nine found improvements in the mental skills of those enrolled on an after-school exercise programme for nine months.

Tests found that those placed on the programme improved their accuracy on some mental capability tests by twice as much as those who were not assigned daily exercise.

The research by the University of Illinois examined 221 children. All the participants underwent cognitive testing and brain imaging before and after the nine-month trial.

Those who were placed on the FITKids programme performed short bursts of exercise interspersed with rest over a two-hour period, amounting to about 70 minutes of physical activity on average.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found those who did the daily routine saw substantial improvements in their ability to pay attention, avoid distraction and switch between cognitive tasks.

Study leader Doctor Charles Hillman, a community health professor of Illinois University, said: "Those in the exercise group received a structured intervention that was designed for the way kids like to move.

"They performed short bouts of exercise interspersed with rest over a two-hour period."

The children in the FITKids exercise group wore heart-rate monitors and pedometers during the study.

Dr Hillman said: "On average, kids' heart rates corresponded with a moderate-to-vigorous level of exercise intensity, and they averaged about 4500 steps during the two-hour intervention."

The children were active for about 70 minutes a day, and, as expected, fitness increased most in the intervention group over the course of the study.

Dr Hillman said: "We saw about a 6% increase in fitness in children in the FITKids intervention group."

He said fitness improved by less than 1% in the control group.

Children in the exercise group were also able to block out distractions and focus on the task at hand. They were also able to switch between intellectual tasks while maintaining speed and accuracy.

Dr Hillman said those who were not put on the programme saw minimal improvements in these measures, in line with what would be expected over the nine months.