PhD, Associate Professor L.V. Yarchikovskaya¹
PhD, Associate Professor V.N. Kovalenko²
PhD, Associate Professor O.V. Mironova¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Tokareva¹
PhD, Associate Professor О.N. Ustinova^3
1Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg
²Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg
³Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: healthy lifestyle, motor qualities, physical activity mode, bad habits, body tempering practices, physical culture.

Background. National health reports for the last few years have shown the junior drug addiction (both for injected and inhaled drugs) being on the fast rise in the country. The situation is further aggravated by the almost epidemic growth of the junior HIV-AIDS diagnosed population, with up to 80% of the HIV-positive adolescents tested addicted to injection drugs [1, 4]. Furthermore, the physical fitness and health rates of the national university student population have been reported to fall for the last five years. Therefore, the modern academic physical education and sports policies and curricula give a high priority to the efforts to cultivate due motivations for physical progress and healthy lifestyles in the academic communities [5].

We would define a healthy lifestyle as the everyday life ways and models geared to mobilize and advance the body adaptation resource. We have made a comprehensive analysis of the healthy lifestyle promotion processes in the national academic communities in the cultural, axiological, personality- and performance-focused aspects to offer basic theoretical grounds for the subject.

Objective of the study was to provide theoretical grounds for and test benefits of the healthy lifestyle promotion and building model applicable in the academic physical education process.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was performed in the period of 2014 through 2017 at Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and Saint Petersburg Peter the Great Polytechnic University, with 568 students being subject to the questionnaire survey to find their attitudes to alcohol and tobacco; plus 150 students were sampled for the physical development, progress and healthy lifestyle (HLS) awareness tests in the educational experiment.

Study results and discussion. The healthy lifestyle promotion and building model piloted under the study is designed to ensure a staged academic progress in the HLS knowledge and physicality building so as to harmonically cater for the natural junior demand for physical activity. The model offers the following progress stages: Stage 1 (semester 1) to give the students elementary HLS knowledge on a largely subconscious basis; Stage 2 (semester 2) to help them master the HLS basics; Stage 3 (semester 3) to study categorized HLS on a comprehensive basis; Stage 4 (semester 4) to excel the categorized HLS knowledge and skills; and Stage 5 (semesters 5-6) to help the students in their HLS-driven self-identification efforts.

At Stage 1 the students are given primary knowledge of the health protection and improvement methods. At Stage 2 a special emphasis is made on the interest in and motivations for the physical education and health activity and the HLS-awareness aspects. At Stage 3, the model puts on a sustainable basis and facilitates their motivations for healthy, creative and active life. Stage 4 is designed to encourage their natural need for self-discovery and self-perfection in the personality sensitive aspects. And at Stage 5 the students are encouraged in their self-identification efforts and health agendas.

The healthy lifestyle promotion and building model piloted by the educational experiment was proved beneficial as verified by the students’ progress in the HLS knowledge quality and skills in the Experimental Group (EG) versus the Reference Group (RG).

Table 1. EG versus RG progress in the attitudes to alcohol, %

The survey data given above in Table 1 demonstrate the EG being less prone to alcohol versus the RG. The reported reduction in the tobacco addiction (see Table 2) may be interpreted as a success of the preventive efforts under the experiment with an emphasis on the students’ awareness of the health risks and physicality degrading risks, particularly in the aerobic physical practices.

Table 2. EG versus RG progress in the attitudes to tobacco, %

The survey data of the EG versus RG showed the EG students being better prepared to design and manage their physical activity based on the HLS-related knowledge, skills and abilities developed by the model. The EG versus RG physical progress rates (Table 3) show benefits of the HLS promotion and building model.

Table 3. EG versus RG physical progress at Stage 1 and 5 of the HLS promotion and building model piloting experiment (х+m)

Particularly notable progress was made in the vital capacity aspect due to the model giving a high priority to anaerobic practices. The EG progress verified by the pre- versus post-experimental data shows the growing awareness in and determination for HLS, with the senior students found more motivated for physical practices driven by their individual health agendas. Given hereunder in Table 4 are the pre- and post-experimental HLS knowledge test rates of the EG versus RG showing progress of the sample in the HLS knowledge.

Table 4. Pre- and post-experimental HLS knowledge test rates of the EG versus RG, points (х+m)

The HLS promotion and building process objective is to build due HLS creativity in students i.e. the ability to make health-driven decisions in the professional progress management domain and make reasonable innovations in the individual health progress; with the ability to apply the available tools and things for the health resource protection and building purposes: see Table 5.

Table 5. Pre- and post-experimental HLS creativity level test rates of the EG versus RG, %

Conclusion. In the healthy lifestyle promotion model piloting experiment, the students mastered the basics of self-reliant physical trainings, hygiene, self-control, self-massage practices and behaviour to prevent diseases and bad habits and master elementary exercise therapy and active recreation procedures. The study data show high benefits of the healthy lifestyle promotion model as verified by the model piloting experiment and give grounds for the young people’s health protection and improvement initiatives.

References

1. Baturin A.E., Volskiy V.V., Kovalenko V.N., Pomogaeva N.S. Eksperimentalnaya proverka modeli fizicheskoy trenirovki voennosluzhaschikh mirotvorcheskikh sil [Experimental check of physical training model for servicemen of peacekeeping forces]. Uchenye zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2017, no. 9 (151), pp. 32-37.
2. Efimova-Komarova L.B., Tokareva A.V., Getman V.D. Samokontrol i metody otsenki fizicheskogo i funktsionalnogo sostoyaniya studentov. Ucheb. posobie [Self-control and methods to assess students’ physical and functional states. Study guide]. SPbSASU publ., St. Petersburg, 2016, 101 p.
3. Bolotin A.E., Mironova O.V., Lukina S.M., Yarchikovskaya L.V. Soderzhatelnye i organizatsionnye aspekty formirovaniya navykov zdorovogo obraza zhizni u studentov vuzov [Healthy lifestyle skill building technology for university students: conceptual and procedural aspects]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 6, pp. 18-20.
4. Mironova O.V., Lukina S.A., Yarchikovskaya L.V. Soderzhanie pedagogicheskoy tekhnologii formirovaniya navykov zdorovogo obraza zhizni u studentov vuzov [Essence of educational technology of healthy lifestyle skills building in university students]. Sb. nauch. trudov XIV Mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf. ‘Sotsialno-pedagogicheskie aspekty fizicheskogo vospitaniya molodezhi’ [Proc. XIV Intern. res.-pract. conf. ‘Socio-pedagogical aspects of physical education of youth’]. Ulyanovsk: USTU publ., 2016, pp. 214-223.
5. Yarchikovskaya L.V., Koval T.E., Lukina S.M., Ustinova O.N Mesto dykhatelnykh uprazhneniy v kombinirovannykh ozdorovitelnykh programmakh [Role of breathing exercises in combined health programs]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2017, no. 10, pp. 35-38.

Corresponding author: khubbiev@gmail.com

Abstract

The study analyses results and benefits of a healthy lifestyle promotion model piloting experiment designed to improve the university students’ health and adaptability standards. The study data were applied to classify the health lifestyle building process into five interrelated stages and to substantiate and offer the healthy lifestyle promotion model to build new knowledgebase, skills and abilities for healthy lifestyle in the academic physical education curricula of the Saint-Petersburg universities. In the healthy lifestyle promotion model piloting experiment, the students mastered basics of self-reliant physical trainings, hygiene, self-control, self-massage practices and behaviors to prevent diseases and bad habits and master elementary exercise therapy and active recreation procedures. The study data show high benefits of the healthy lifestyle promotion model as verified by the model piloting experiment and give grounds for the young people’s health protection and improvement initiatives.