Executive Function Response to Moderate-to-High-Intensity Rope Skipping in Overweight Adolescents Aged 12-14: A Preliminary Study.

Background: Previous studies have shown that a high body mass index (BMI) is detrimental to executive function (EF) in children and elderly populations but may be improved by physical activity (PA). However, research on adolescents aged 12-14 is lacking. This study explores two parts: Part 1: cross-sectional correlation between BMI and EF; Part 2: the effect of an 8-week rope skipping intervention. Methods: Recruit 166 adolescents to participate in EF tasks. Screen and select 96 adolescents to be assigned to the normal weight control group (N-C, n = 23) and the normal weight exercise group (N-E, n = 23), the overweight control group (OV-C, n = 13), and the overweight exercise group (OV-E, n = 14), the obese control group (OB-C, n = 12), and the obese exercise group (OB-E, n = 11). Exercise program: moderate-to-high-intensity rope skipping training. Control program: Self-directed reading. Data were recorded for BMI and EF tasks. Results: Part 1, EF and BMI exhibit a negative linear correlation. Part 2, the reaction time of EF tasks in N-E, OV-E and OB-E decreased about 9, 14, 13% (p < 0.05), respectively, while the average BMI in OV-E and OB-E decreased about 10% and 11% (p < 0.05), suggesting a potential correlation between the reduction in BMI and the improvement in EF, which means that the exercise intervention significantly improved EF performance. Conclusions: Among adolescents aged 12-14, overweight and obese individuals exhibit weaker EF compared with normal weight individuals. An 8-week moderate-to-high-intensity rope skipping exercise program can improve EF in adolescents aged 12-14 with different BMIs, and the improvement is greater in overweight and obese individuals.