Physical activity, physical fitness, and grade point average in tertiary students: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

We conducted a meta‐analysis of correlations between physical activity, physical fitness, and academic performance among tertiary students. Results with 96 samples showed a great degree of heterogeneity, with credibility intervals being consistent with both a strong negative and strong positive association for many predictor and outcome measures. Thus, there was a great degree of uncertainty in our effect size estimates, and we conclude that much further research is needed on this topic. Nevertheless, we found a small positive association ( ρ  = 0.03, k  = 69, N  = 91,003) between physical activity frequency and grade point average (GPA). The association was slightly stronger when the predictor was physical fitness rather than physical activity frequency ( ρ  = 0.16, k  = 13, N  = 15,358), when GPA was obtained from institutional records ( ρ  = 0.11, k  = 15, N  = 5414), and when physical activity frequency was captured objectively ( ρ  = 0.20, k  = 4, N  = 6888), although such moderator analyses were based on a limited number of studies. Only the physical fitness–GPA correlation showed credibility intervals suggesting the correlation was positive in most cases. We could not confirm the presence of publication bias.