Health level and fitness of secondary school pupils in Ukraine

Abstract

To clarify the importance of pupils’ regular physical activity for improving their health, adopting healthy lifestyle, and preventing injurious habits is the burning question nowadays. The aim of the research was to investigate interrelations between pupils’ health level and their physical and mental development indices; as well as pupils’ lifestyle and their fitness. The worsening of schoolchildren’s health which caused the growth of number of pupils who have joined the special medical groups during last ten years is confirmed. It was found out that the most common diseases pupils suffer from are those affecting organs of respiration, digestion, muscular-skeleton system, and eyesight impairment; such conditions as a bad posture, scoliosis, cardio-vascular and endocrine diseases have become more and more frequent among children of school age. The factors affecting pupils’ health are as follows: kind of educational institution where a pupil is studying, his/her living area, and gender. It is revealed that the schoolchildren who belong to special medical groups are characterized by low and lower than average fitness indices, and by number of insufficient development of socially important mental and physical qualities. A lot of tobacco smokers are among such pupils and they are usually unsatisfied with their own health level and amount of their physical activities.