A critical evaluation of systematic reviews assessing the effect of chronic physical activity on academic achievement, cognition and the brain in children and adolescents: a systematic review

Ref ID	221
First Author	T. M. Wassenaar
Journal	INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL NUTRITION & PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Year Of Publishing	2020
URL	https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12966-020-00959-y.pdf
Keywords	• Cognition • Paediatrics • Public health
Problem(s)	• No registered or published protocol • Reasons for excluding potentially eligible studies not provided • Limited quality assessment or no risk of bias • Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality • Risk of bias not incorporated into conclusions of review • Inconclusive or lack of recommendations
Number of systematic reviews included	19
Summary of Findings	Of the 19 included systematic reviews of the effects of chronic physical activity in children and adolescents: one was high-quality and eighteen were (critically) low-quality reviews. Low quality reviews suggested physical activity-related brain changes, but lacked an interpretation of these findings. Only 26% of included reviews had an a-priori design, 16% included an overview of excluded studies, 72% assessed risk of bias, but only 15% reviews considered quality information in their evidence synthesis.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results?	N/A
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study?	Yes