This study tested whether exercise could help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It included 80 children with ADHD aged 6 to 12 years, recruited from one hospital in China. None had taken medication for at least 6 months. They were split at random into two groups. One group did a 12-week program that mixed aerobic activity with skill-based games, three times a week. The other group waited and got no exercise. Forty typically developing children were also tested for comparison.
The exercise group improved on all three core thinking skills: holding back impulses, working memory, and switching between tasks. On a task measuring self-control, reaction time dropped more in the exercise group than in the wait-list group. Planning and mental flexibility also improved. The authors report these gains appeared to last for at least 12 weeks in the exercise group.
Sleep scores changed over time, but there was no clear difference between the groups, so the study does not show an exercise effect on sleep. The authors caution that repeated testing may explain some gains, and the wait-list group had a 20.5% dropout rate. The authors suggest exercise may work as a possible extra treatment for children with ADHD in this age range.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- Liang, 2022: drop in reaction time on the self-control task, exercise group versus wait-list group, p < 0.01.
What the terms mean:
- p is the chance of seeing a gap at least this big if there were no real difference. Below .05 is usually read as unlikely to be chance alone.
Source: Liang X, Qiu H, Wang P, et al.. The impacts of a combined exercise on executive function in children with ADHD: A randomized controlled trial. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (2022). doi:10.1111/sms.14192