Assessment of compliance with healthy lifestyle standards by the instructional staff of higher educational institutions

Abstract

Aim: To assess the quality of compliance with the standards of a healthy lifestyle by instructors of higher educational institutions with specific learning environment and their attitude to exercise. Materials and Methods: To achieve the aim of the research, we conducted a survey of instructors (n=126) of different age groups according to the questionnaire developed by the authors. The questionnaire is designed to investigate the current state of physical training with instructional staff; to clarify the issues of instructors’ healthy lifestyle; to study ways to improve their physical fitness. Results: It was found that only 10.3% of instructors regularly exercise in the morning; 85.7% get to the place of service by public transport or by car and only 14.3% go on foot. On weekends, 41.3% of instructors prefer passive types of motor activity and recreation; more than 50% smoke, in addition, 30.9% smoke one pack or more a day. On top of that, 46.8% of instructors do not engage in physical training at all; 50.9% of instructors answered that they attend training sessions in order to prepare for the test. Conclusions: It was found that the majority of instructors (67.1%) rarely or almost never follow the standards of a healthy lifestyle. Insufficient efficiency of the current system of physical training of instructional staff was identified and the reasons for insufficient level of physical fitness, health of instructors and systematic absence from physical training sessions were revealed.