State of health of St. Petersburg’s children which are engaged in sports schools

Abstract

Pupils have a high level of chronic disease, the indicators of their physical development are reduced with increasing educational load. In this regard, of particular interest is the state of health of schoolchildren, additionally engaged in active sports in special clubs. Purpose of research. To study the state of health of schoolchildren of St. Petersburg attending the clubs of active sport, depending on age. Materials and methods. Data of medical examinations of 1122 schoolchildren 8-16 years old, engaged in sports schools in St. Petersburg. The Mann-Whitney U-test and the comparison of relative frequencies in two populations were used. Results of the research and discussion. Among children, the most popular sports are football (36.7%) and athletics (29.4%), the prevailing majority of children attend clubs from 1 year to 6.5 years. The proportion of pupils from the second health group was 84.9%, healthy children from the first health group – 13.1%, respectively. The most frequent deviations of musculoskeletal system were posture disorders (69.7% of children) and scoliosis (10.0%), at the same time, by the age of 16, the incidence of posture disorders significantly decreased (p < 0.05), and the proportion of scoliosis increased (p < 0.01). Myopia of weak and moderate degree was revealed in 13.3% of surveyed schoolchildren, the proportion of children with myopia by the age of 16 increased significantly (to 20.7%, p < 0.05). Among children attending sports clubs, fewer have myopia than among pupils enrolled in regular schools. The revealed dynamics of morbidity of the musculoskeletal system among children engaged in sports sections, indicates the need for continuous medical monitoring of the level of physical activity and the need to correct the training regimen in identifying children’s health abnormalities.