A Study of Influence of Working at the Computer on Some Indexes of the Physical Health State of Students

The purpose of the work is to study the level of physical health, ability to work dynamics during the week, prevalence of Internet addiction and the impact of working at a computer on the students' health state. Material and methods. To determine the level of sophomores' physical health we measured it by the indexes of Quetelet, Robinson, Skybinskiy, Shapovalova and Ruffie. The measurement was carried out at the beginning and at the end of the fall semester. The study involved 22 students, 12 girls and 10 boys aged 17-19. Having evaluated each indicator in points according to the charts, we calculated the students' physical health level. To determine the dynamics of ability to work level within a week for students who do not work with the computer and to determine the changes in A, P, Q, S, the testing was carried out in 20 minutes of work at the computer. While determining students medical health state it was found out that the day of the greatest work capacity was Wednesday, and the day of the lowest work capacity was Monday. According to our study, 14% of students had a low health level. The latter is characterized by a decrease in the level of protective forces, reduction of functional reserves, which can lead to the development of various disadaptation syndromes. Only 14% of the surveyed students had a high or above average level of physical health, but with a tendency to reduce it. The average level of health had 36% of students. Girls had lower physical health state indicators. Twenty-minute work at the computer caused decreased indicators of students' mental capacity: overstrain of the central nervous system and the visual analyzer, decrease of the ability to concentrate attention, and decrease in the mental productivity coefficient, which characterizes the mobility of nervous processes. The obtained results proved that optimal time for working at a computer in accordance with mental capacity indicators made up 20 minutes.