Morpho-functional screening of primary school students during the course of physical education

Abstract

Background. The article presents the findings of physical development and functional status screening in school children aged 8-9 years. The objective of the study was to determine factor structure of morpho-functional status in primary school students. Material and methods. The study involved 229 primary school children including 116 students aged 8 and 113 students aged 9. The following methods were used: theoretical methods (analysis and synthesis, generalization, induction and deduction), medical and biological methods (somatometry, somatoscopy, and physiometry), and methods of mathematical statistics. The factor structure of morpho-functional state of 8-9- year-old boys and girls was determined: physical development had the largest contribution to the total variance (32.74% in boys and 33.38% in girls); the functional state of the cardiovascular and respiratory system together contributed 35.87% in boys and 38.27% in girls. Results. In 8-9-year-old boys, the most informative parameters were the body measurements such as body weight (r = 0.987at p<0.01), waist circumference (r = 0.981 at p<0.01), and hip circumference (r = 0.974 at p<0.01), as well as the functional indicators of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems such as diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.864 at p<0.01), heart rate at relative rest (r =- 0.856 at p<0.01), and breath-holding tests (r =0.799 at p<0.01; r =0.730 at p<0.01).In 8-9-year-old girls, the most informative morpho-functional screening indicators also included the body measurements: BW (r= 0.984 atp<0.01) and waist circumference (r= 0.984 atp<0.01); as well as the indicator sof body fat such as suprailiac skinfold (r=0.973atp<0.01) and subscapular skinfold (r=0.955 at p<0.01). Conclusion. The obtained results have a prognostic value for individualization and differentiation of pedagogical process, and also for evaluation of the influence of basic pedagogical means and methods in the process of physical education of primary school students.