Dr. Med. T.A. Shilko¹
Postgraduate student Yatsun Zhang^1
1National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk

Keywords: students, physical health, tests, China.

Background. University student communities are ranked the world over among the most important and active social groups, with the academic education system playing one of the key roles in the national material and spiritual assets building policies. It was in 2005 that the Ministry of Education in China initiated a large-scale study of the physical fitness and physical health standards at universities to find that the students’ health standards are on decline [3]. This was the reason for the Ministry of Education and State Sports Administration to come up with the National Student’s Physical Health Standards system that was implemented in 2007 and is still valid.

Objective of the study was to to rate and analyze the physical health standards of the university population in Liaoning Province to update the relevant theoretical and practical physical education concepts.

Methods and structure of the study. Randomly sampled for the physical health rating study (run in June through November 2018) were the 20 years old college students (n=18,312, including 8,878 females and 9,434 males) from the following 6 universities in Liaoning Province:  Shenyang Pedagogic University, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang College of Engineering, Liaoning University, Shenyang Technical University and Shenyang Medical College. Progress of the sample in the National Student’s Physical Health Standards Program was tested by anthropometrics (body length and mass), vital capacity, Harvard step test, standing long jump and arm strength (wrist dynamometry) tests. The test data were processed by the National Student’s Physical Health Standards system toolkit to rate the physical health as excellent, good, satisfactory or poor.

Results and discussion. The physical health tests rated the sample heath 0.1%, 8.57%, 51.05% and 40.28% excellent, good, satisfactory and poor on the physical health scale, respectively: see Table 1; with the excellent and good physical health rates dominating in the male subsample and the satisfactory and poor rates in the female subsample. Then we analyzed the ranked physical health test data versus the anthropometrics including the body mass, height and body mass index (BMI) – and found the sample anthropometrics being unsatisfactory. Thus the male subsample was 174.3±4.3cm high and 70.54±11.74kg heavy; and the female subsample was 162.0±3.5cm high and 56.78±9.49kg heavy on average: see Table 3. It should be mentioned that 43.85%, 40.16% and 15.99% of the sample was tested with the normal, low and excessive (obesity) BMI: see Table 2.

Table 1. Sample test data on the National Student’s Physical Health Standards scale

Furthermore, we tested the vital capacity i.e. the maximal exhale (ml) following the maximal inhale (with the vital index rated in ml/ kg of body mass). The male and female subsamples were tested with the average vital capacity of 3639.80±979.19ml and 2428.34±473.71ml and average VI of 52,.9±15.36 and 42.11±9.97ml/kg, respectively – that means that the respiration system capacity is relatively low in the Chinese students. On the whole, 34.3%, 36.12% and 29.56% of the sample was tested with the excellent/ good, satisfactory and poor vital indices, respectively: see Tables 2, 3.

Arm strength was tested by the wrist dynamometry with computations of the strength indices (i.e. strength test value to body mass in %). The male and female subsamples strength was tested at 34.27±9.24kg and 17.13±3.85kg on average, with the strength indices rated at 51.23±7.45% and 30.71±6.38%, respectively. Only 24.07% of the sample was rated excellent and good on the strength index scale, with all the rest rated satisfactory or poor: see Tables 2, 3.

Harvard step test rates the HR variation after the standard physical workload, with the HR rehab time being inversely correlated with the physical fitness. The sample generally was rated low on the Harvard step test scale, with the female and male subsamples HDT rates averaging 54.33±5.26 and 46.93±5.20, respectively, and only 49.6% of the sample tested with the good and satisfactory cardiovascular system performance standards: see Tables 2, 3.

Table 2. Grouped sample test data, %

Table 3. Physical health test rates of the sample

The sample as also tested relatively low by the standing long jump test, with the male and female subsample jumps averaging 210.17±20.66cm and 153.63±15.26cm, respectively, and 59.99% and under 40% ranked poor and satisfactory or better, respectively, on the test scale – that is indicative of the underdeveloped speed-strength capacity of the lower limbs: see Tables 2, 3.

Conclusion. The tests and analyses under the study found the physical health standards of the student population in the Liaoning Province being still low after 12 years since the National Student’s Physical Health Standards system was implemented (in 2007) – that means that the system has been largely inefficient. One of the core reasons for the poor physical health standards, as we believe, is the physical inactivity of the student population. The relevant questioning surveys found more than 50% of the student population supporting sports only in a passive manner, with only a minor percentage of the students going in for habitual sports and actively competing. The young people’s physical health standards were found further aggravated by the addictions to Internet, alcohol and tobacco associated with the sleeping and nutritional disorders. The health issues need to be addressed by changes to the valid academic education curricula, with a special priority to the students’ physical activation projects, healthy diets and daily regimens. The academic physical education curricula shall make a special emphasis on the physical conditioning and physical progress test components, with the physical health standards tested on a yearly basis.

References

1. Zagrevskaya A.I., Lubysheva L.I. Ontokinesiological approach for sportization of physical education within national education system. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2017, no. 6, pp. 6–8.
2. Shilko V.G., Shilko T.A., Potovskaya E.S. Stress control practices reported by university students engaged in physical education. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2016. no.12. pp. 41-43.
3. "National Student Physical Fitness Survey Data 2005", Ministry of Education, 2006, 8.
4. Sun Xiang, Dai Jiansong: "Research on the Physical Fitness and Lifestyle of College Students in Jiangsu Province", Journal of Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, 2007, 41(5): 53-56.

Corresponding author: tashilko@gmail.com

Abstract

University student communities are ranked the world over among the most important and active social groups, with the academic education system playing one of the key roles in the national material and spiritual assets building policies. The study was designed to rate and analyze the physical health standards of the Chinese university population to update the relevant theoretical and practical physical education concepts. Sampled for the study in 2018 were 18,312 college students from 6 universities in Liaoning Province whose progress was tested by anthropometrics (body length and mass), vital capacity, Harvard step, standing long jump and arm strength tests. The tests rated poor the physical health standards of the sample that was interpreted as indicative of inefficiency of the 2007 National Students’ Health Standards Program that failed to improve the physical fitness and health standards of this age group for 12 years. One of the core reasons for the poor physical health standards, as we believe, is the low physical activity of the student population. The relevant questioning surveys found more than 50% of the student population supporting sports only in a passive manner, with only a minor percentage of the students going in for habitual sports and actively competing. The young people’s physical health standards were found further aggravated by the addictions to Internet, alcohol and tobacco associated with the sleeping and nutritional disorders. The health issues need to be addressed by changes to the valid academic education curricula, with a special priority to the students’ physical activation projects, healthy diets and daily regimens. The academic physical education curricula shall make a special emphasis on the physical conditioning and physical progress test components, with the physical health standards tested on a yearly basis.