Risk factors of health impairement of university students in Vladivostok during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of the work was to study the lifestyle factors of students at higher educational institutions in Vladivostok during the period of restrictive measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and research methods. A prospective cohort study was conducted. With the help of the google form, a questionnaire was conducted for students 18-24 years old studying at 1-4 courses of educational organizations in Vladivostok. During statistical processing, descriptive statistics were calculated, Student's t-test, Pearson's, and Spearman's non-parametric rank correlation coefficient were applied. Results. A study of the health of studying universities showed that 67.51 1.86% respondents when working with electronic communications made complaints about a feeling of eye fatigue (63.79 2.32%), headaches (27.34 2.15%), a sense of gravity in the head (26.17 2.12%). Significant direct relationship between level of remote educational component and duration of digital devices usage by trainees (R = 0.16, p = 0.03), working time with gadgets for educational purposes (R = 0.21, p = 0.03), food intake multiplicity (R = 0.18, p = 0.01) is determined. A significant inverse correlation of the total time of use of gadgets and night sleep duration (r = -0.17, p = 0.02) was also revealed. A comparative analysis of the characteristics of the lifestyle of modern youth during the pandemic COVID-19 and before it, revealed that the number of students with dietary disorders has decreased. The number of students with night sleep less than 7 hours increased significantly (41.32 1.96% versus 30.17 4.26%, 2 = 5.1, p = 0,024), and the number of respondents sleeping more than 8 hours (13.88 1.37% versus 20.69 3.76%, has decreased = 4.33, p = 0,038). During training using remote educational technologies, significantly fewer respondents were determined who were in the fresh air only if they needed to be moved to work or study (49.37 1.99% versus 80.17 3.7%, 2 = 37.47, p 0,001). Output. The identified changes in the lifestyle of students during the pandemic period are COVID-19 a risk factor for health impairment, which emphasizes the relevance and need to continue studying this problem.