LIFE research group
Physical Activity, Fitness and Health
DEPORTE, ADOLESCENCIA Y SALUD - BIOMARCADORES COGNITIVOS
DADOS-BC Project (Deporte, ADOlescencia y Salud – Biomarcadores Cognitivos), also known as ‘Rendimiento académico y cognitivo: relación con los hábitos activos en alumnado de Bachillerato’, is a complementary study of the DADOS Project in which LIFE research group – ‘Physical Activity, Fitness and Health’ from Jaume I University of Castellon has been working recently.
DADOS Project revealed the need to know the development of active habits during the late adolescence and to study their effects on academic and cognitive performance, as well as the need to expand our data base in order to understand the adaptations that would explain these effects. Therefore, this project aims to extend the initial assessments carried out by LIFE research group during the 2015-2017 period, complementing the development of DADOS cohort in late adolescence (from 16 to 18 years).
OBJECTIVES
The main aim of DADOS-BC project is to focus on the multidisciplinary analysis of the effects that active habits (physical activity and sedentary lifestyle) and physical attributes (physical condition and body composition) have towards academic performance, cognitive ability and biomarkers related to cognitive functions throughout adolescence in bachelor students.
METHODOLOGY
DADOS project is a study that has been monitoring for several years a group of adolescents with the most pioneer research methods in healthy habits (latest generation of triaxial accelorometry, validated questionnaires and tests, blood tests). Despite DADOS’ innovative nature, the project did not have a cohort’s monitoring during late adolescence period. Following with the methodology used during DADOS Project, the novelty of DADOS-BC project relies on analysing the associations between healthy habits and characteristics with physical health and cognitive variables throughout adolescence in a homogeneous sample of bachelors’ students, through a multidisciplinary analysis and with a longitudinal design. Additionally, through blood analysis of novel biomarkers related to cognitive functions, this project tends to identify the main physiological adaptations that would explain these effects.
The results of this project would offer a broad and global vision of the effects that a healthy lifestyle has over the development during adolescence period, providing scientific evidence that would enable educational, health, and political leaders from our country to design more effective public health policies and school failure prevention programs.