[Influence of tobacco smoking on physical efficiency of young men (part II)]

Cigarette smoking by the young is becoming an ever more serious problem. It has been found that starting smoking at a younger age entails higher risks than when doing so at an older age. The life expectancy of people who take up this addiction before the age of 15 was demonstrated to be 8 years shorter. Research indicates that smoking considerably reduces physical fitness of young people. Therefore, the objective of this work was to assess the influence of smoking on the physical fitness of secondary school graduates passing their entrance examination to the University of Physical Education on the basis of surveys administered to them. The results were subject to statistical analysis. One identified a considerable influence of the number of cigarettes smoked per day and smoked on the examination day on the score earned during fitness tests (p<0.0003; p<0.005). It was also demonstrated that smoking youth devoted less time to the weekly physical workout than non-smoking--which also had its adverse impact on the test results. Non-smoking men did their workout 7.3+/-2.5 hours per day on average, while smoking men--4.6+/-3.2 hours (p<0.0001). These data confirm the fact that along with an increase in the number of cigarettes smoked and the addiction duration, the physical fitness of smokers goes down.