HealthDay (8/4, Gordon) reported, “Middle school students who are physically fit are likely to score higher on standardized tests measuring reading and math abilities,” according to a study of 1,200 middle-school students presented at a psychology meeting. What’s more, “the average scores went up in correlation with levels of fitness, the findings showed.”

Related Links:

— “Fitter Kids May Make Better Grades: Study, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, August 03, 2012.

HealthDay (8/4, Dallas) reported, “Girls who are sexually or physically abused may start menstruating earlier or later than average,” according to a study published online July 26 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. “After analyzing information on nearly 69,000 women, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine found those sexually abused during their childhood were 49 percent more likely to have their first period before age 11 than women who were not abused,” while “women who suffered severe physical abuse had a 50 percent increased risk for starting their menstrual cycles late, or after age 15.”

Related Links:

— “Child Abuse Might Alter Onset of Menstruation in Girls, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, August 03, 2012.

USA Today (8/6, Jayson) reports, “Honesty may boost your health, suggests a study that found telling fewer lies benefits people physically and mentally.” During “the study period, the link between less lying and improved health was significantly stronger for participants in the no-lie group, the study found.” Researchers found that “when participants in the no-lie group told three fewer minor lies than they did in other weeks, for example, they experienced, on average, four fewer mental-health complaints and three fewer physical complaints.”

Related Links:

— “Study finds that avoiding lies can improve your health, “Sharon Jayson, USA Today, August 05, 2012.

HealthDay (8/6, Gray) reports that according to a study presented at a psychology meeting, “helping teens learn to count their blessings can actually play an important role in positive mental health.” The study, which “involved 700 students living in New York, aged 10 to 14,” revealed that “as gratitude increases, so do life satisfaction, happiness, positive attitudes, hope and even academic performance.”

Related Links:

— “Grateful Teens May Have Less Risk for Depression, Other Problems, “Barbara Bronson Gray, HealthDay, August 05, 2012.

MedPage Today (8/4, Petrochko) reported, “Whether or not a child maintains a treatment for mental health may depend on parents’ perceived benefits of that treatment,” according to a 573-participant study published in the August issue of the journal Psychiatric Services. Specifically, the “cohort study of parents and guardians of children receiving outpatient mental health services found those who saw treatment as providing ‘a lot’ of benefit (versus some or no benefit) to their child were significantly more likely to continue treatment at six-month follow-up, at an adjusted odds ratio of 1.96 (95% CI 1.19 to 3.21, P=0.008),” researchers reported. Notably, “medication with or without therapy was perceived as more beneficial than therapy alone and that perceived benefit was strongly related to continued use of treatment.”

Related Links:

— “Parental Approval Key to Keeping Kids on Psych Tx, “Cole Petrochko, MedPage Today, August 03, 2012.