Analysis of the parameter changes of students’ physical development (at the age of 18–20) to identify the threat of increased body weight and obesity

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of young people who are overweight and obese reaching the scale of a global epidemic. Besides, the scientists have recorded a significant increase in the body weights of the students during their study years. One of the reasons for this phenomenon may be a lack of knowledge by innovative students about the risks of developing obesity and related chronic diseases. There is a need for comprehensive and long term research to increase students’ knowledge of the problems associated with developing obesity. In any case it is necessary to make an objective assessment of the physical development level of students, their physical activity level, their everyday lifestyle and food quality. Therefore in this study, we analyzed and evaluated the changes of the physical development and health parameters of the students from the Siberian federal university (SFU) over a long time period (2002–2014). Material & methods: Meanwhile, annually 800 students of the 1 3 courses of the SFU selected at random and took part in the study. Half of the examined students were the boys (n=400) and the other half were the girls (n=400). Moreover, both the boys and girls were allocated into two equal groups. It is important to note that there were the groups: male 1 (n=200) and female 1 (n=200) who were relatively healthy students. There were the groups: male 2 (n=200) and female 2 (n=200) where the students were with various diseases. An important point is that the age of the researched students is between 18 20 years. The main parameters of the study included the body weighing of the young people indicating their growth and the restoration time of the functional systems of the body after the load test (A. Martinet test). All in all the authors’ opinion is that the values of these parameters will allow giving an objective assessment of the presence or absence of a threat of developing obesity and overweight among the students. Results: The obtained data allow to come to a conclusion about the significant increase (P <0.01) in the average body weight of the students in the groups male 1 and male 2 for the period from 2002 to 2014. On average, the body weight of the students increased by 6 ± 0.4 kg. It makes sense that in the groups of girls there were female 1 and female 2 and minor fluctuations of body weight were discovered during quite a long period from 2006 to 2014. In addition, the evolution of the growth values of the students was mixed among the boys male 1 in different periods of the research. Besides, the boys who are the male 2 revealed a significant increase (P<0.01) in the average growth of young people from 177±0.5 cm in 2002 to 180±0.2 cm in 2014. In fact, the dynamics of growth in the groups of girls who were female 1and female 2 was mixed in different periods of the research. The average growth rates among the girls of both groups were found within the range of 2 ± 0.3 cm. in a word, the indices of the recovery interval of the students' body after the test load allowed us to distinguish 2 main periods. It is known that there were the groups of boys who were male 1 and male 2 showed a reduction in the parameters of recovery time during the time period from 2002 to 2004. Further there was found significant dynamics (P<0.01) of the gradual increase in the recovery period after the load. Concerning the groups of girls there were female 1and female 2 showed a reduction in time values of recovery in the period from 2002 to 2006. Further there is significant dynamics (P<0.01) of the particular increase in time parameters. Conclusions: Actually, the results of the research indicate the significant risk of increase of overweight and obesity among the male students. It turned out that the negative dynamics of a significant increase of the average body weight among young men during the period of research was revealed. In a word, the young women students have no identified the threats to a significant increase of the body weight. At the same time in all the studied groups the negative dynamics of increase in the recovery time of the functional systems of the organism after the load test was fulfilled and it was found in the period from 2006 to 2014. It is not surprising that the data let us suggest that there is the decrease in the level of physical preparedness of the students (boys and girls) within the specified time period.