The purpose of this study was to investigate the
association between
physical inactivity and academic
record in Korean
adolescents.
Adolescent students from the first grade of middle
school to the third grade of
high school [n=75,066] participated in the 5th
Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based
Survey project in 2009. The
association between
physical inactivity and academic
record was assessed using multivariate
logistic regression analysis after adjusting for
gender, age,
body mass index,
family's
socioeconomic status,
parents'
education level, and frequency of vigorous or moderate
physical activity [PA] as well as muscular strength
exercises. During weekdays, the
odds ratios [Ors] [95%
confidence interval [CI] for
reporting a higher than average academic
record, as compared with <1 hour of
physical inactivity per day, was 0.796 [0.761-0.832, for >/= 1 to <2 hours, 0.632 [0.603-0.663, for >/= 2 to <3 hours, 0.567 [0.535-0.601 for >/= 3 to <4 hours, and 0.494 [0.468-0.522, P < 0.001 for all cases] for >/= 4 hours of
physical inactivity per day. During the weekends, the ORs [95° o CI] for
reporting a higher than average academic
record, as compared with <1 hour of
physical inactivity per day, were 0.901 [0.848-0.957, P = 0.001] for >/= 3 to <4 hours and 0.785 [0.743-0.830, P < 0.001] for >/= 4 hours of
physical inactivity per day. Korean
adolescents who spend more
time engaged in
physical inactivity are predisposed to a below-average academic
record