Students' commitment to a healthy lifestyle

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Introduction. The relevance of the study is determined by the non-decreasing frequency of violations in the lifestyle of young people and the continued increase in their morbidity, which is due, among other things, to the age of this category of the population 1,2,3. It is known that puberty is a critical period of childhood, when their body is most susceptible to various external influences. It is advisable to use this to increase the motivation of the younger generation to lead a healthy lifestyle, including in the pedagogical process.
The aim of the study was to study the awareness of medical students about modern approaches to the formation of healthy lifestyle skills.
Materials and methods. An anonymous online survey of 154 1st year students of the Faculty of Medicine was conducted. The survey was conducted according to a specially designed questionnaire, which includes 20 closed-type questions affecting both the understanding of the components of a healthy lifestyle and their actual implementation in practice. The survey results were processed using Microsoft Exel.
The results of the survey of 102 girls and 52 boys showed that their ideas about the importance of lifestyle components for health differ significantly depending on the gender of the student. Thus, for young men, the most significant principles are sports (74.5%), which correlates with traditional ideas about greater physical activity of males. Girls give priority to rational nutrition (62.3%), while boys attach much less importance to compliance with sanitary standards (42.2%). Both categories of respondents (53.4% and 57.5%, respectively) equally recognize the importance of work and rest, and giving up bad habits. In general, more than half of the respondents admit that all the rules of a healthy lifestyle must be fully observed, and about 1/3 of all participants in the survey allow partial compliance with the rules, depending on their capabilities or personal interest. 17.2% and 6.9% of girls demonstrated a negative attitude towards maintaining their own health. Meanwhile, students' awareness of the impact of lifestyle disorders did not have clear gender differences, but their commitment to its management largely depended on their gender identity. So, for young men, the most important thing in observing the principles of a healthy lifestyle was physical activity and the absence of bad habits. At the same time, the girls preferred compliance with sanitary and hygienic standards and rational nutrition. The most well-known of the modern approaches to the formation of healthy lifestyle skills for students turned out to be biomedical and psychological-pedagogical approaches.
Conclusions. Students have a complete understanding of the principles of a healthy lifestyle, but the commitment to their observance is quite different, and largely depends on gender. In addition, the higher prevalence of bad habits among girls and the low commitment of young men to compliance with sanitary standards causes particular concern. Students' awareness of approaches to the formation of healthy lifestyle skills showed that the most well-known for them were the biomedical and psychological-pedagogical approaches, which indicates the need to develop a set of medical, psychological and pedagogical approaches to the formation of healthy lifestyle skills among young people, starting from childhood.

About the authors

Mikhai Mikhailovich Kurtanov

Moskovskiy finansovo-promyshlennyy universitet «Sinergiya»

Author for correspondence.
Email: m.kurtanov2004@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0009-0000-1763-0656

3rd year student of the Faculty of Medicine

Russian Federation, 105318, Moscow, Izmailovsky Val str., 2

Natalia Nikolaevna Glukhova

Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy"

Email: natalja.tigr@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0009-0008-1070-0357
SPIN-code: 7810-4588

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Nursing of the Faculty of Medicine

Russian Federation, 105318, Moscow, Izmailovsky Val str., 2

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