Influence of weekly physical exercises on indicators of biological age of student's youth

Background and Study Aim. The physical activity level of students is closely associated with ecological, hygienic, and socioeconomic facts. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically reduced the student opportunity to engage in regular physical activity. The purpose of the work is to study the influence of the weekly physical exercises on the indicators of biological age of students of higher education institutions of Ukraine.

Material and Methods. The study involved 409 students (182 boys and 227 girls), who were divided into experimental (87 boys and 117 girls) and control (95 boys and 110 girls) groups. The biological age (BA) of students was determined by means of Voitenko’s method using biomarkers of their physical status. Indices of the cardiovascular system (pulse, systolic, and diastolic blood pressure); respiratory system (vital capacity, the Hench and Stange test); central nervous system (static balancing); PHSA (personal health self-assessment) were studied. In addition, a questionnaire-based survey of students on their health self-assessment including 27 questions was carried out. Statistica 13.5 statistical software package was used to process the experimental material. Methods of variation statistics, correlation, and regression analysis were used. The coefficients of the Student t-test and Fisher’s F-test were calculated.

Results. In the process of pedagogical experiment, the positive impact of the author’s physical education program on BA of students of the experimental group (EG) was revealed: in boys, the positive dynamics of BA changes was detected already after four additional hours of performing exercises per week, whereas in girls – after six or more hours. The most pronounced changes in physical state, which determined BA decrease during academic year were noted in students with a weekly motor regime exceeding 6 hours.  In boys of EG, the biological age decreased at the end of the experiment by 11,1 years (p < 0,001), whereas in girls – by 5,3 years (p < 0,001). No positive changes of BA were observed at the end of the experiment in students of the control group (CG), whose weekly regime of motor activity constituted 2 hours. In boys of EG, the decrease of BA is manifested after four additional hours of performing physical exercises per week, whereas in girls – after six or more hours. The most pronounced changes in BA indices during the academic year were noted in students of the experimental group with weekly motor regime exceeding 6 hours.

Conclusions. The developed mathematical models are recommended to be used for estimating, modelling, and predicting the biological age of students according to informative indices of physical state.