Institute for Social Safety Studies, School of Management & Governance, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, the Netherlands.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2010 Mar 23;7:22. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-7-22.
Previous studies showed that cognitive ability is related to health and mortality. The cause of this relationship remains largely unknown. One plausible explanation is that cognitive ability is related to behaviours that affect health. This study investigates whether cognitive ability is related to healthy dietary habits, physical activity and appropriate bodyweight in adolescents and examines whether self-control mediates the relationship between cognitive ability and health behaviour.
In total 201 high-school students aged between 15 and 20 participated in the study. They completed three cognitive tests, measuring cognitive ability, reaction time and memory span, and completed a questionnaire on self-control, dietary habits, physical activity and bodyweight.
Results show that adolescents scoring high on the cognitive ability test have healthier dietary habits and engage more often in physical activity. Adolescents with high self-control have a healthier eating pattern, are more often physically active and have lower BMI's. Both reaction time and memory span were not related to dietary habits and physical activity. Self-control was not related to cognitive ability and could not, therefore, mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and health in this study.
In conclusion, the link between cognitive ability and health behaviour could explain - in part - the relationship between cognitive ability and health. Self-control cannot explain this link.
先前的研究表明认知能力与健康和死亡率有关。但这种关系的原因在很大程度上仍不清楚。一种合理的解释是，认知能力与影响健康的行为有关。本研究调查了认知能力是否与青少年的健康饮食习惯、身体活动和适当的体重有关，并检验了自我控制是否在认知能力与健康行为之间的关系中起中介作用。
共有 201 名年龄在 15 至 20 岁之间的高中生参与了这项研究。他们完成了三项认知测试，分别测量认知能力、反应时间和记忆广度，以及一份关于自我控制、饮食习惯、身体活动和体重的问卷。
结果表明，在认知能力测试中得分较高的青少年有更健康的饮食习惯，更经常参加身体活动。自我控制能力较强的青少年饮食模式更健康，更经常进行身体活动，BMI 指数也更低。反应时间和记忆广度都与饮食习惯和身体活动无关。自我控制与认知能力无关，因此不能在本研究中解释认知能力与健康之间的关系。
总之，认知能力与健康行为之间的联系可以部分解释认知能力与健康之间的关系。自我控制不能解释这种联系。
