Analysis of the Respiratory Diseases and the Level of Physical Activity in Primary-School-Age Children

This article deals with the results of the survey on the problem of motor activity deficit among primary-school-age children (304 persons). The author established the link between the prevalence of respiratory diseases and the level of physical and mental activity. The body resistance of primary school children to outbreaks of viral infections was shown. The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the correlation between the prevalence of respiratory diseases, some elements of day regimen as well as some peculiarities of the physical activity of children. Material and methods. To collect information we used a psychological verbal method, namely, the questionnaire method, where 304 parents of 6-11 years old children participated. Questionnaires were composed of 41 questions falling into four thematic units: motor activity, mental activity, day regimen and respiratory diseases. Microsoft Office software package was used to process the survey results. Results and discussion. The analysis of the children's sleep routine showed that only 19% of schoolchildren adhere to the nighttime sleep hygiene norms, namely, 10 hours. The percentage of schoolchildren practicing morning gymnastics was low and comprised 23.4%. Children engaged in sports activities both school and after school hours made up 46.1%. Motor activity took 81.3% of free time hours of primary school children. The lowest body resistance was observed in 6-7 years old children, specifically, 205 cases of diseases for 77 persons. 10-11 years old children had the highest level of missed class time due to diseases (499 days for 64 children). Outbreaks of infectious diseases occurred from late autumn to early winter. The most common respiratory diseases were: runny nose – 57.6%, sore throat – 53.9%, acute respiratory viral infection – 43.8%, and chorditis – 15.1%. At the same time, only 31.7% of parents made it a priority to do planned vaccination regularly. Conclusions. The survey data showed a low level of motor activity among primary-school-age children (46.1%) and a high percentage of cases of diseases (84.5%) per annum. The prevalence of diseases was the following: 1-3 cases per year – 61.5%, 4 times and more cases per year were in 23%. Statistical treatment indicated a weak positive correlation between the duration of night sleep and the months of an outbreak of respiratory diseases. A similar indicator existed between the structures of respiratory diseases and the injuries received during physical activity. Prospects for further research. Prospect for future work is to estimate the body physical development with the help of the set of anthropometric indicators; and to identify the level of motor qualities using reference tests. To improve motor activity and strengthen the children's somatic health we offered to develop recommendations to amend physical training content for children who suffered acute respiratory viral diseases.