Objective: To provide both empirical support and a theoretical framework for systematically improving and optimizing the cognitive capabilities of college students through physical activity, while considering the mediating and regulating impacts of self-efficacy and negative emotion.Methods: The study employed an overall random sampling method, examining 500 college students from five universities in Jiangsu Province using the Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), Adult Executive Function Scale (ADEXI), Positive and Negative Emotion Scale (PANAS), and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES).Results: The findings indicated that the average age of the participants was 18.41 ± 0.73 years, encompassing 215 male students (43%), and 185 female students (57%). Engagement in physical activity was significantly and positively correlated with executive function (β = 0.246, p < 0.01), inversely associated with negative emotion (β = −0.137, p < 0.01), and demonstrated a significant positive predictive impact on self-efficacy (β = 0.183, p < 0.01). Self-efficacy was observed to partially mediate the relationship between executive function and physical activity. In addition, negative mood was identified as playing a partial mediating and modifying role in the relationship between executive function and physical activity.Conclusion: Increasing college students’ daily physical activity participation not only benefits their executive function, self-efficacy, and confidence levels but also exerts a limited positive impact on negative mood, with the potential to regulate the intensity of negative emotion.

Purpose: To examine the effects of three types of school-based exercises on bone health and physical fitness function in Chinese boys and girls. Methods: One hundred and seventy-four Chinese boys and girls were randomly assigned into four groups: (1) sham exercise (ShEx); (2) high-impact exercise (HiEx); (3) high-impact exercise with various directions (HiExVi); and (4) high-intensity interval exercise (HiInEx). Speed of sound (SOS) and physical fitness parameters were determined before and after six-month intervention. Results: At the end of six-month intervention, participants in all groups show an increment of SOS compared with the baseline (p < 0.05), and the changes were higher in HiEx (mean: 38.878 m/s, 95% CI: 32.885~44.872, p = 0.001) and HiExVi groups (49.317 m/s, 42.737~55.897, p < 0.001) compared with ShEx group (20.049 m/s, 13.751~26.346). Six-month exercise training generated a reduction of percent of body fat (PBF) and waist–hip ratio (WHR) (p < 0.05). The decrease of PBF was greater in HiExVi (−1.222%, −1.820~−0.624, p = 0.012) and HiInEx groups (−1.395%, −1.809~−0.982, p = 0.003), whereas the reduction of WHR was larger in HiEx (−0.026, −0.039~−0.014, p = 0.009), HiExVi (−0.024, −0.036~−0.012, p = 0.021), and HiInEx groups (−0.035, −0.046~−0.024, p < 0.001) compared with ShEx group. Balance function (BLF), vital capacity (VC), standing long jump (SLJ), and sit up (SU) increased in all intervention groups (p < 0.05). The BLF increased in HiEx (6.332 s, 4.136~8.528, p = 0.001), HiExVi (10.489 s, 8.934~12.045, p < 0.001), and HiInEx groups (9.103 s, 7.430~10.776, p < 0.001) showed a greater change than that of ShEx group (1.727 s, 0.684~2.770). The increment of VC (273.049 mL, 199.510~346.587, p < 0.001) and SU (2.537 times/min, 0.639~4.435, p = 0.017) was higher in HiInEx group, whereas the accrual in SLJ was larger in HiExVi (7.488 cm, 4.936~10.040, p = 0.007) compared with ShEx group (58.902 mL, 7.990~109.814; −0.463 times/min, −2.003~1.077; 1.488 cm, −0.654~3.630). Conclusion: The brief school-based exercises were effective in improving schoolchildren’s health, but they showed different effects, with HiEx mostly improving bone health, HiInEx largely benefiting physical fitness function, and HiExVi enhancing both bone and physical fitness.

Background: Mental health has become a major public health issue worldwide. Biological and epidemiological studies have suggested that diet and physical fitness play a role in the prevention or cure of mental disorders. However, further research is required to elucidate the relationship between diet, physical fitness, and mental health. The study aims to provide a theoretical basis for promoting an adolescent healthy lifestyle and preventing mental problems by exploring the relationship between physical fitness, calcium intake, calorie intake, and adolescent mental health.Methods: A cross-sectional study of a sample of adolescents (N = 253, 12–13 years) was conducted. The study involved adolescents from three middle schools in Central Jiangsu Province, including 136 boys and 117 girls. Weight, height, and body mass index were measured. Physical fitness was scored using the Chinese National Student Physical Fitness Standard. Diet data were collected using a weighed 7-day food diary to estimate energy intake and dietary calcium intake. The mental health status of the participants was assessed using the Chinese Middle School Student Mental Health Scale. A T-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the differences of variables between different genders and body mass index, and Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression were used to explore the relationship between physical fitness, dietary intake, and mental health.Results: The height (165.13 ± 8.07), weight (55.24 ± 13.00), and strength quality (64.93 ± 21.66) of boys are higher than those of girls (161.67 ± 6.44,48.99 ± 8.97, 58.40 ± 23.75, P < 0.05), and the flexibility quality (74.59 ± 14.75) of girls is higher than that of boys (68.30 ± 20.84) (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in the total scores of speed and physical fitness (F values were 4.02187.73, 3.07, 5.95, 10.33, and 9.52, respectively, P < 0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between calcium intake, cardiopulmonary fitness, and mental health (r = 0.276, P < 0.01; r = 0.159, P < 0.05). Calcium intake and cardiopulmonary fitness could explain 8.4% of the changes in the mental health of adolescents aged 12–13(ΔR₂ = 0.084, P < 0.05).Conclusion: Adequate calcium intake and the improvement of cardiopulmonary fitness in adolescents aged 12–13 are essential for the good development of their mental health. Future research in this field should examine the prospective associations between multiple measures of physical fitness composition and other nutrients ingested and mental health outcomes, as well as intervention studies that seek to provide evidence of causality.

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions among the elderly. The dietary index for gut microbiota (DI-GM) is a novel proposed indicator reflecting gut microbiome diversity. However, the role of DI-GM in OA remains unclear. This study thus aims to explore the association between DI-GM and the risk of OA and analyze the mediating roles of systemic immune-inflammation index (SII).Methods: We utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning 2007-2018. OA was assessed through self-reported questionnaires, and dietary recall data were used to calculate the DI-GM. Univariate and weighted multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to evaluate the association between DI-GM and OA, the weighted linear regression analyses were employed to investigate the association of DI-GM with SII, while restricted cubic splines (RCS) curves were used to assess the non-linear relationship between these variables. Subgroup analyses were subsequently conducted to validate the robustness of the findings. Mediation analysis evaluated the role of SII.Results: This study included 15,875 participants, revealing a significant inverse association between the DI-GM and OA risk (p < 0.001), higher DI-GM demonstrated a substantially reduced OA risk (adjusted model OR: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.79–0.86) and were negatively associated with the SII [β (95% CI): –9.2 (–13.0, –2.0)]. The RCS curve indicated a non-linear relationship between DI-GM and OA risk. Subgroup analysis showed that various demographic and clinical factors did not significantly alter the association between DI-GM and OA risk (interaction p-value > 0.05). The mediating effect of SII accounted for 12.69% of association between DI-GM and OA.Conclusion: This study found a significant negatively association between DI-GM and OA prevalence in the US population. Mediation analyses demonstrated a significant mediating effect of SII.

Objective: The junior high school years represent a crucial period in adolescents’ physical and psychological development, during which mental health concerns have gained significant attention. Psychological resilience, a modifiable protective factor, is vital for maintaining mental wellbeing. Method: This study involved 1,064 junior high school students, who were selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using the Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3) and the Adolescent Resilience Scale. The analysis integrated multiple linear regression, deep neural networks (DNN), and the SHAP (Shapley Additive Explanations) model for interpretability. Results: Physical exercise intensity, duration, and frequency were significantly positively correlated with adolescents’ psychological resilience and its subdimensions. Notably, the interaction between intensity and duration was prominent, exhibiting nonlinear effects. Furthermore, the interaction between grade level and physical exercise was statistically significant, highlighting lower grades as a key intervention period. For individuals with low psychological resilience, increasing both exercise intensity and duration led to more effective intervention outcomes. Conclusion: Physical exercise is significantly positively associated with adolescent psychological resilience, and this association may operates through potential nonlinear pathways. Furthermore, exercise characteristics may interact with demographic variables such as grade level, providing empirical insights to inform the development of tailored intervention strategies.

Objectives: This study examined whether an 8-week freestyle rope-skipping intervention improves resilience and self-efficacy among junior high school students, and whether self-efficacy serves as a partial mediator in the association between the intervention and resilience. Methods: Two eighth-grade classes ( N = 90; aged 13–14 years) were assigned to either an experimental group (freestyle rope skipping; 30 min per session, three sessions per week for 8 weeks; n = 43) or a control group (regular running during the afternoon break; n = 47). Resilience was assessed using the Chinese version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and self-efficacy was measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale at both the pre-test and post-test. A 2 × 2 mixed model (Group Time) was used to test intervention effects, and PROCESS macro (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples, while statistically accounting for baseline levels of the intervening variable and outcome included as covariates. Results: At post-test, students in the rope-skipping class scored significantly higher of resilience (102.58 ± 12.54 vs. 77.51 ± 14.86) and self-efficacy (34.63 ± 4.37 vs. 26.66 ± 9.37) compared to the control group (both p < 0.01). A significant positive correlation emerged between resilience and self-efficacy scores (r = 0.508, p < 0.01). Path analysis revealed that self-efficacy partially accounted for the association between the intervention and resilience (indirect effect = 0.229, 95% bootstrap CI [0.063, 0.394]; direct effect = 1.118; total effect = 1.346). Conclusion: An 8-week freestyle rope-skipping intervention was associated with significant improvements in resilience and self-efficacy among junior high school students compared with regular running. Moreover, self-efficacy served as a partial mediator in the association between the intervention and resilience, suggesting that improvements in self-efficacy may represent one pathway through which school-based physical activity supports resilience.