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UDC 613.86:612.821-053.2(571.15)
HYGIENIC ASPECTS OF INFLUENCE OF SUMMER HOLIDAYS IN THE TERRITORY OF THE ALTAI BIOSPHERE RESERVE ON THE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STATE OF CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS
1National Scientific and Practical Center of Children's Health, Moscow 2Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow 3Altai State Reserve, the Republic of Altai "Children's activity center, Gorno-Altaysk
Ye.D. Laponova12, Ye.D. Veselovsky3, Ye.O. Romanova4
There was assessed the psychophysiological status of children during the stay in the Reserve and the emotional state before and after book reading sessions in conditions of different natural landscapes. The psychoemotional state of children, according to the results of testing, showed the most favorable level of the studied indicators after staying in the Reserve, which indicates the significant health-saving potential of such organization of children's recreation. Changes in the emotional state of children under the influence of reading sessions confirm the sensitivity of the valuation method used, and also show the potential opportunities for a favorable change in the emotional status of children through familiarizing them with reading books. Key words: psychophysiological status, health-saving potential, book reading.
One of the most important focus areas of children's hygienists is the overall assessment of various factors of external environment from the point of view of their influence on the child's health. From these points essential is not only the research of the educational process organization, its evaluation and expertise, but also extra-curricular activities, in particular, holiday organization.
The analysis of the health status of children and teenagers in Russia indicates, that at the present time there holds the trend to the growth of the incidence rate, spread of chronic pathology, reduction of the number of healthy children in all age-sex groups. Since the major part of child-teenage population of Russia are the children visiting school, it is obvious that a series of negative factors directly affect the situation. It is the expressed intensification of the educational process (the increase of the learning material amount by the deficiency of time for its digestion) numerous innovational reforms at schools not taking into account the peculiarities of perception and processing of information by pupils of different age-sex groups, inconsistency of sanitary and hygienic conditions of children's stay at the educational institution with the standards, irrational organization of nutrition, lack of physical activity, incompetence of the teaching stuff in the issues of health protection, low-quality medical service.
Unfortunately, the same factors can potentially make the same negative influence on the children's health during the holidays. This issue requires our focused attention and hygienic assessment.
The objective of the current research work was the assessment of the psychophysiological status of children during the stay in the Reserve, and also the determination of peculiarities of the emotional
state before and after book reading sessions in conditions of different natural landscapes.
To reach the stated goal there were necessary to solve the following tasks:
1. To evaluate the initial level of children's neu-rotization.
2. To reveal and assess the character of changes of the psychophysiological status of children in the beginning and in the end of the period (shift) of stay in the Reserve.
3. To determine and evaluate the peculiarities of the emotional state of children before and after book reading sessions in conditions of different natural landscapes, and also to check the sensitivity of the used method.
Materials and methods
Testing of the neurotization level by means of a special questionnaire, monitoring of the psychoemotional state in dynamics by means of WAM (wellbeing, activity, mood) checklist, study of the emotional state in dynamics be means of "color-writing" according to Lutoshkin.
Results and discussion
At the first stage, we evaluated the initial level of neurotization among the children of the shift. It was stated, that the main neurotizing factor for children is the school. Even during the period of summer holidays children experience anxiety about school problems (57%), feeling of shyness (50%), are afraid of making mistakes (74%), have difficulties with concentration (50%) and decision-making (70%). Besides, the majority of children complain about tiredness and apathy during the day (60%), and also sleep disorders (53%). At the same time, half of the respondents evaluate their level of health as average and below the average (53%).
At the second stage there was registered the psy-choemotional state of children in dynamics (in the beginning and in the end of the shift) using the WAM checklist. Thus, initially the indexes of "wellbe-ing" and "mood" in the majority of children (82% and 85% respectively) were in the most favorable scale range. However, high level of the "activity" index was registered only in 41% of respondents. By the end of the shift, practically all indexes reached their maximum values, which totally indicates the expressed positive influence of the organized rest in the reserve on the psychoemotional state of children. The index of activity increased most significantly - from 41% to 74%. It turned out, that the positive reaction of boys to the influence of the complex of natural and social factors (organized rest in the territory of the Reserve) was more intensive than in the girls.
Third stage of study - determination and evaluation of the peculiarities of the emotional state of children before and after book reading sessions (reading aloud) in conditions of various natural landscapes.
According to the questionnaire, more than a half of the children prefer computer games instead of reading real books in the free time. In order to develop the interest of the younger generation to reading one of the forms of prevention of high computer activity and addiction included "real" reading (reading aloud). The assessment of emotional reactions to such activity was performed by means of "Color-writing" test (according to Lutoshkin). Such method allows to reveal the participants with comfortable emotional state (CES), balanced emotional state (BES) and discomfort emotional state (DES) at the moment of examination.
Totally, there were organized six different areas for such reading activities. Depending on the character of emotional reactions, these areas can be nominally divided into two groups. The first group included area 1 (among the friends), area 2 (with the view on Lake Teletskoye), area 3 (besides the fire), and also the area "Chachilgan Mull". The current study revealed a significant increase of children undergoing CES (for example, areas 1
and 3 - from 5 to 10 persons, Chachilgan Mull -from 2 to 10 persons) due to the obvious decrease of children with DES (for example, Chachilgan Mull - from 8 to 3 persons). The second group included the areas "Cave of pokemons" and "Vas'ki-na Mountain". The "Cave of pokemons" did not show any changes in the emotional state. In the area "Vas'kina Mountain" the number of children with CES did not change, however, the number of participants with emotional discomfort reduced, apparently, due to the joining of children with balanced emotional status to the group, which can also be considered a positive result.
Conclusion
Consequently, the participants of the pilot project were the children with average health level exposed to the considerable neurotizing influence of school. The testing of the psychoemotional state showed the most favorable level of studied parameters (wellbeing, activity, mood) in the end of stay in the Reserve, which indicates a considerable health-preserving potential of such children's holiday organization. The changes of indexes of the emotional state of children under the influence of reading sessions prove the sensitivity of the used method of evaluation, and also show the existing potential abilities of the favorable change of the emotional status of children by means of involving them into reading process. Moreover, the influence of various landscapes on the emotional state of participants is obvious.
For more deep study of the issue, it is planned to continue the research in the current direction implementing more specialized psychophysical methods.
Contacts
Corresponding author: Laponova Yevgeniya Dmi-triyevna, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Senior lecturer of the department of hygiene of Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow.
117997, Moscow, Ostrovityanova Ulitsa, 1. Tel.: (495) 4344483. Email: rsmu@rsmu.ru
