COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BOYS AND GIRLS OF TAJIKISTAN

Abstract

Introduction. Student youth is the most socially active and mobile group, which signifi cantly determines the strategy and future of the country. Purpose of research. To evaluate the anthropometric indicators of the physical development of students in Tajikistan and compare them with the results of similar studies. Material and methods. We studied 390 students of the Khatlon State Medical University (KhSMU) of Tajikistan, among which there were 279 boys (71.5%), girls — 111 (28.5%), the average age was 19.3±1,7 years. The research program included the measurement of the main indicators of physical status: height (cm), body weight — BW (kg), body mass index — BMI (kg/m2), right hand dynamometry (kg), somatotype determination. The results obtained were compared with data from similar studies of 15,686 students from 22 countries, whose average age was 20.8±2.6 years (Peitzer K. et al., 2014). Results. Average indicators of BMI, height and weight of students of KhSMU were 21.6±0.14 kg/m2, 168.8±0.4 cm and 61.5±0.5 kg, respectively, while the same indicators of BMI, height and the weight of a similar group of young people from other countries were equal to: BMI from 18.1±1.9 kg/m2 to 25.4±4.5 kg/m2; height — from 163±0.07 m to 178±0.07 m, weight — from 56.7±7.8 kg to 78.0±13.9 kg, respectively. According to comparing, it was found that there were more students with normal weight in KhSMU than the average among girls and boys from other countries of the world, among the girls more than 15.4% and more than 19.1% among the boys. Body weight defi ciency among girls of KhSMU was detected 6.8% less and indicators of overweight and obesity in girls from other countries were on average 7.6% more often than girls in KSMU. To assess the signifi cance of diff erences was used Student’s t-test, they were considered reliable at a signifi cance level p <0.05. Conclusion. It was revealed that the indicators of the physical development of boys and girls in Tajikistan in terms of weight and height parameters diff ered from those of their peers from other countries, which may be an indicator of the socio- economic characteristics of living.