There was a marked decrease in aerobic fitness and flexibility and a slight increase in abdominal muscle endurance among Lithuanian schoolchildren. Leg muscular power decreased slightly in girls but remained unchanged in boys. A decrease in daily physical activity is the most likely contributing factor to the decrease in aerobic fitness and flexibility and PE reform has not been able to compensate for this effect.

In the case of various emergencies, especially pandemics, healthcare workers are faced with disproportionate pressures. Organizational support plays a significant role in protecting the psychological and physical health of healthcare workers. This interdisciplinary research aims to determine how changes in the physical and psychological well-being of healthcare and pharmacy workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown are related to work organization factors that support safety and stability. A quantitative research strategy was applied in the research. Data from an electronic survey assessed the changes in the physical and psychological well-being of healthcare and pharmacy workers during the lockdown period and the organizational factors supporting safety and stability. The sample of the quantitative research consisted of 967 employees of healthcare institutions and pharmacies in Lithuania. This research broadens the concept of organizational factors and provides data on their interaction with the changes of employee well-being indicators in a pandemic situation. It was found that positive changes in the evaluation of physical as well as psychological well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown could be consistently predicted by all the analyzed safety and stability supporting organizational factors that were found to be associated with subjective physical well-being and psychological well-being even when adjusting for the effect of socio-demographic factors (gender, age, work field, and specialty). The identification and proper management of organizational factors was significant for the psychological and physical well-being of healthcare workers during the lockdown period. It was found that all estimates of safety and stability supporting organizational factors during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown were positively related and could act as protective factors to the subjective physical and psychological well-being of healthcare and pharmacy workers.

Research background and hypothesis. Nutrition habits develop with the growth of an individual. During adolescence proper nutrition habits and physical activity are the most important factors infl uencing health. The quality of life is affected by the peculiarities of behavior and lifestyle in adolescence. The aim of our study was to determine nutrition habits of adolescents, and then, to make a comparison of eating patterns by gender and the groups of adolescents in different physical activity groups. Research methods. The study comprised the ninth form students from 16 Kaunas schools (4 gymnasiums, 10 secondary and 2 main schools). The strategy was based on the evaluation of proportions of the different types of schools in Kaunas. The study applied questionnaire survey. Research results. The analysis revealed that 28.5% of middle-school age students did not have breakfast, there were more girls than boys among them. Boys and students with lower physical activity more frequently had hot meals. Adolescents most commonly had meals four times per day without following nutrition regimen. Discussion and conclusions. Boys more frequently had breakfast, however, they chose buns, potato chips, and used more fried food for snacks; the same eating patterns were followed by students with lower physical activity. Girls were more likely to have fruit, green vegetables. In most cases, the selection of meals depended on the individual taste; boys more frequently paid attention to prices and nutrition values. Usually adolescents acquired information about proper nutrition from their parents and the internet; girls – more frequently from magazines and the internet.

(1) Background. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals faced psychological and social challenges in addition to a sharp increase in workload. The aim of this work was to reveal how healthcare and pharmacy workers assessed their wellbeing and the methods of coping they employed to overcome stress during quarantine. (2) Methods. The mixed-method study was conducted between August and October 2020, integrating quantitative (n = 967) and qualitative (n = 27) strategies. Doctors, nurses, healthcare administrative staff, pharmacy specialists, and other employees of the healthcare system were interviewed retrospectively about their experiences during and following lockdown (March–June 2020). (3) Results. Overall, 38.7% of the respondents reported a decrease in psychological wellbeing, while 23.4% of the respondents reported a decrease in physical wellbeing during quarantine. The healthcare professionals’ narratives identified a shift from nonspecific fears at the beginning of the pandemic to the more concrete fear of contracting COVID-19, of infecting others, and about their loved ones, as well as undifferentiated fear. Multivariate analysis revealed that a subjective decrease in wellbeing was typical in professionals who had had direct contact with patients infected with COVID-19, as well as those with stronger fears, and those who were more likely to employ compulsive distancing and substance use as ways to cope with stress. (3) Conclusions. The results suggest that lockdown had a negative impact on healthcare workers’ wellbeing during the first pandemic wave in 2020.

This study analyzes resilience differences between sedentary adolescents and adolescents that were classified as belonging to different sport activity categories in gender and age groups (grades 5-6, 7-8 and 9-10). The data were taken from the 2008 study which had been carried out in five biggest cities in Lithuania. The self-reported data on resilience (Resilience Scale for Adolescents, READ) and participation in sport activities (Consistent Five Categories Schema) were obtained from adolescents whose age ranged from 10.4 to 18.3 years for females (N = 1492) and from 10.5 to 18.1 years for males (N = 1407). Significant differences were observed that indicated that adolescents could have higher resilience in comparison with sedentary peers if they participated in sport activities in line with the optimal level of participation in sport activities for resilience according to their gender and age (effect sizes were rather small; the Bonferroni correction (p \ .0125) was applied). According to the research data, there are possible specific mechanisms of interaction between resilience and participation in sport activities, and also, each age and gender group could involve a relevant different optimal level of participation in sport activities when resilience of adolescents is higher compared to sedentary peers. Evaluation of specific mechanisms of interrelation between resilience and participation in sports can promote improvement when preparing and implementing sport activity programs, designing them in a more specific way in terms of adolescent mental health and resilience education.