Changes in the physical form of students during the Covid-19 pandemic

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Changes in the physical form of students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Zakhvatova Tatyana Yevheniyivna Senior Lecturer of Physical Education and Sports Department; Yegorov Andriy Borysovych Prof, of the Department of Information and Measurement Technology, Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics; Nekrasova Klavdiia Valeriyivna Graphic designer, Ciklum,

Abstract

This research aim is to study the changes of young people's physical fitness during the first year of quarantine restrictions driven by the pandemic situation.

The main challenge of the research proved to be data gathering from multiple sources, its grouping and stratification and also ensuring that the selected subset is robust. Data stratification included various parameters such as age, gender and physical fitness of students. Possible distortion of the results due to non-compliance to gender conformity has been considered in particular and evaluated. Close analysis of gender specifics in the data and its correction using random numbers generator allowed to avoid inconsistencies. Statistical significance of subset's parameters changes was controlled by calculations of confidence intervals.

Statistical analysis of students' physical fitness evaluation in 2019 fall semester and 2020 fall semester has been carried out.

The calculations included average values of testing results, standard deviation of the results (^аі), mean values (^ax), confidence interval for average values and 50% percentile. Overall for university average values of students' physical fitness score have dropped from 13.4 to 12.7 within the considered year (maximum score was 20 points). 50% percentile also has dropped from 14 to 13.

Indicators of the 2019 and 2020-year sets differ with statistical validity of not less than 95%.

Results of the research have shown a relatively small decrease in students physical fitness due to the changes of lifestyle and ways of education organization during COVID-19 pandemic. The average change is evaluated to 5%. In 1 to 5 score range we are talking about a decrease from 3+ to 3. Nevertheless this small drop has been observed throughout all stratas: male, female, and any other values of the rest of parameters. This allows to draw the conclusion about the existence of general negative trend.

Keywords: COVID-19, quarantine, lockdown, physical fitness.

Анотація

Зміна фізичної форми студентів під час пандемії COVID-19

Захватова Тетяна Євгеніївна старший викладач кафедри фізичного виховання; Єгоров Андрій Борисович кандидат технічних наук, професор кафедри інформаційно вимірювальних технологій, Харківській національний університет радіоелектроніки; Нєкрасова Клавдія Валеріївна графічний дизайнер, Ciklum

Метою цього дослідження є вивчення змін фізичної підготовленості молодих людей протягом першого року карантину, викликаних ситуацією з пандемією.

Основною проблемою дослідження виявився збір даних з кількох джерел, їх групування та стратифікація, а також забезпечення надійності обраної підмножини. Стратифікація даних включала різні параметри, такі як вік, стать та фізична підготовленість студентів. Зокрема, було розглянуто та оцінено можливе спотворення результатів через недотримання гендерної відповідності. Ретельний аналіз тендерної специфіки даних та її корекція за допомогою генератора випадкових чисел дозволили уникнути невідповідностей. Статистична значущість змін параметрів підмножини контролювалася розрахунками довірчих інтервалів.

Проведено статистичний аналіз оцінки фізичної підготовленості студентів в осінньому семестрі 2019 року та осінньому семестрі 2020 року. Розрахунки включали середні значення результатів тестування, стандартне відхилення результатів, середні значення, довірчий інтервал для середніх значень та 50% процентиль.

Загалом по університету середні значення балів фізичної підготовленості студентів протягом розглянутого року знизилися з 13,4 до 12,7 (максимальний бал - 20 балів). 50% процентиль також знизився з 14 до 13.

Показники наборів 2019 і 2020 років відрізняються статистичною достовірністю не менше ніж на 95%.

Результати дослідження показали відносно невелике зниження фізичної підготовленості студентів через зміни способу життя та способів організації навчання під час пандемії COVID-19. Середня зміна оцінюється в 5%. У діапазоні від 1 до 5 ми говоримо про зниження від 3+ до 3. Проте це невелике падіння спостерігалося у всіх стратах: чоловічому, жіночому та будь-яких інших значеннях решти параметрів. Це дозволяє зробити висновок про наявність загальної негативної тенденції.

Ключові слова: COVID-19, карантин, локдаун, фізична підготовка.

Introduction

Possible impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and quarantines on people's health and physical fitness has been raising a wider interest in such fields as medicine, biology, physical well-being [1,2].

Aim of this research is to investigate the impact of the first COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on the physical fitness of the students of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics (KNURE) studying their fitness condition evaluation before the pandemic and after the first year of quarantine restrictions. As KNURE is not a specialised institution (as would be for example military or sports ones) the results of the research can be generally extended to other students in Ukraine and other countries close to us.

We all lived through a difficult year of quarantine restrictions:

- gyms and sports sections were closed;

- students studied remotely (practically never left home);

- the motoric activity of people has generally reduced;

- social interaction was limited;

- illnesses of the close ones and grievous newsfeeds had a negative impact to people's mental condition.

While before the pandemic, students were able to and even obliged to exercise and undertake physical education under the guidance of experienced teachers and coaches at least 4 hours a week, did they have means and the desire to perceive it on their own during the quarantine? Has the physical fitness of young people changed during the year of the pandemic and at which scale?

The imposed restrictions listed above suggest a likely deterioration in physical fitness condition. On the other hand, the pandemic has created a number of `positive' factors:

- extra free time that used to be spent commuting to university/work;

- there was an opportunity to improve nutrition (home cooking);

- students from other cities stayed at home in more comfortable, familiar and often more environmentally friendly conditions;

- time freed from social activities could be spent on self-education, selforganization and self-improvement, including sports.

The main task is to find out whether people's physical fitness changed during the pandemic year, and which factors (negative or positive) were more influential. This question is lacking a `digitized' answer. There are no quantitative estimates that can be compared. It is due to several reasons:

1) not enough time has passed since the pandemic began to see a clear change and trend;

2) as this `experiment' was not planned, there was no structure set to collected data or standardized test exercises;

3) during the quarantine the education and assessment process has been dominantly remote which is different from the historically formed practices;

4) conducting a remote assessment of a person's physical fitness is not a straightforward task in general.

pandemic quarantine physical fitness

Materials and methods

Statistical observations

- gender parameters,

- age parameters,

- students physical fitness;

- faculties (specialties) of education.

Gender parameters were investigated (shown below) and defined as essential ones. They were used for random samples formations.

Age parameters were also taken into account in the samples formation. On the one hand, all students roughly belong to the same age group (18-24 years old). On the other hand, each year the set of students is renewed by a fifth: last-year students leave the university and the first-year students are replenished by school graduates - both of those sets were not taken into consideration. In addition, the set of master degree students was excluded from the analysis as well. The reason for the latter is that the master's program at KNURE includes not only its own graduates from the bachelor program but also those of other universities. In most cases, it was impossible to trace their physical condition assessment through-over both 2019 and 2020 fall semesters. Therefore, the 2019 and 2020 sample sets for the research were formed of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students.

The physical fitness characteristics of the students were considered in the sample design as follows. At KNURE, special groups are formed for students with illnesses or special developmental characteristics in physical education classes, which are engaged in separate physical programs. These groups are called special medical groups. Students from these groups were also excluded from consideration during the research. As well as students who happen to be members of national teams for all sports. Such students study and exercise according to individual plans, they would had been involved in sports since a young age, and have a distinct advantage over others in terms of physical fitness.

Students partition by a department is a natural element of the educational process in any university. This partition often simplifies the formation of initial data for analysis and is a natural stratification of the data. The criteria for dividing students into faculties, of course, have nothing to do with their physical abilities. However, when examining these groups of data (by faculty and by study group), some patterns emerged. For example, there were groups of data for which the standard deviation (^cr') was practically zero. There were also groups for which the second quartile (- ^ or 50% percentile) was almost the same as the upper limit of the data range. The reasons for these results were not investigated, they were simply excluded from consideration as gross errors.

Using stratification, generalization and aggregation methods (to be shown later in the paper) made it possible to assess the correlation and interrelations between groups of data, and also to investigate the totality of data by means of its systematization and subdivision into qualitatively homogeneous groups and to calculate the appropriate generalized statistical indicators [3].

Description of tests and data sources

Objectively, the types of final tests in the 2019 and 2020 fall semesters differed. The forms and ways in which this data was stored differed as well (the source documents that were used to generate statistical samples).

Before the quarantine (including the 2019 fall semester) in KNURE and in other higher education institutions of Ukraine the assessment of the physical state of students was carried out with the help of `Tests and standards for the quarterly assessment of physical preparedness of the population of Ukraine' (Order of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine № 4665 of 15.12.2016) [4].

For higher education students' types of tests and assessment scale of physical preparedness are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Tests and standards for the assessment of physical fitness of students in 2019 fall semeter