10-Year Longitudinal Changes in Fitness Parameters in Physiotherapy Students

The aim of this study is to examine changes in the chosen morphological characteristics, motor conditioning, and coordination skills in physiotherapy undergraduates at a medical university in Bydgoszcz in the first decade of the millennium. We assume prevalence of a secular trend in values of morphological characteristics; however, characteristics of motor skills, particularly fitness levels, will remain relatively unchanged.

The study included young people studying physiotherapy at the medical university of Bydgoszcz 2001-2010. Basic morphological features, including waist and hip circumferences, were measured, and BMI and WHR were calculated. The Cooper test and marching over a distance of two kilometers were employed to determine endurance; right and left spinning coordination was assessed by Starosta test. Calculated Mollison indicators were used in the evaluation of dimorphic differences in subsequent observation time. Statistics. Data are presented as mean with the standard deviation. Groupwise comparison was performed with Student's t-test and linear relationships with Pearson's r. Linear covariance models (ANCOVA) were built as theoretical models. Statistical significance was set at alfa = 0.05. Based on the correlation between the data and the corresponding normal score used, the Shapiro-Wilk test is the best choice for testing the normality of data. Variables were excluded if they exceeded the tolerance level for multicollinearity. Analysis was performed with Statistica 10.

The study demonstrated a rising number of male students (from 13,3% to 39,2%, chi² = 10, 13; p = 0,001) and a decrease in age of students overall but no significant changes (from 22, 25 ± 0, 75 to 20, 42 ± 1, 7; F = 32, 9; p < 0,001) in their morphological characteristics and their dimorphic differences (average results for males: BMI, from 22, 25 ± 1, 94 to 26, 27 ± 3, 56; WHR index, from 0, 78 ± 0, 06 to 0, 85 ± 0, 06; average results for females: BMI, from 20, 79 ± 2, 11 to 22, 19 ± 3, 83; WHR index, from 0, 7 ± 0, 04 to 0, 75 ± 0, 15). An overall improvement in endurance was found; however, coordination, especially amongst women, had deteriorated (turn right, from 377,1 ± 48, 1 to 343,1 ± 23, 3; turn left, from 375,0 ± 5, 61 to 345,6 ± 43, 1). We observed multidirectional changes in the analyzed motor skills and most of them were statistically significant.

Longitudinal study of physiotherapy students revealed no differences in morphological and dimorphic characteristics and multimodal changes in assessed motor skills, thus highlighting a need for further research into the identification of their causes. Moreover, a requirement for entry motor skills assessment and curriculum reorientation towards delivery of a broader scope of physical education was suggested.