The association of the executive functions with overweight and obesity indicators in children and adolescents: A literature review

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has become an increasing health problem all over the world. Prior studies suggest there is a relationship between excess body mass in adults and executive functions (EF). The paper analyzes recent studies on the association of obesity indicators and EF performance in children and adolescents. We analyzed four types of studies: comparison studies with obese and healthy children, cross-sectional studies describing dependencies between EF and BMI, follow up studies applying EF as a predictor of overweight/obesity and studies describing the effect of weight reduction on improving EF. We interpreted the results based on the categorization of EF into three main processes: inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and higher-level EF such as reasoning, problem-solving and planning. The strongest evidence supports the relationship between poor inhibitory control and higher BMI, overweight or obesity. However, the mechanism of the association is still unclear. A better understanding of the EF-obesity link may be relevant for the prevention of obesity or help in EF deficits improvement.

Keywords: BMI; Body fat; Children and adolescents; Executive functions; Obesity; Overweight.