Teen Fitness Linked to Higher IQ, Achievement

Being physically fit at age 18 is linked to a higher IQ, a new study finds. The researchers also showed that fitness predicts greater educational and professional achievements later in life.

Earlier studies have found links between physical fitness and mental functioning in animals, children and older adults. But the relationship in young adults hasn't been clear.

In the new study, researchers drew on large datasets to examine over 1.2 million young men born in Sweden between 1950 and 1976. All the men had their physical fitness and intelligence assessed at age 18 when they enlisted for military service. The researchers—based primarily at the University of Gothenburg and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden—compared this information to details of later academic achievement and socioeconomic status from other national databases. The findings appeared in the December 8, 2009, edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more online at: http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/december2009/12072009activity.htm