The characteristics of physical development of present-day students

The problem of preserving health of students is of great public importance. In assessing state of health and morphofunctional state of human body, the most important aspect is level of physical development. The purpose of the study is to investigate indices of physical development of students of medical university and to implement their comparative evaluation. The assessment was carried out concerning physical development of students of the Pacific State Medical University (238 girls and 57 boys) in 2020, including anthropometric measurements, calculation of BMI and Pignet index. The factor analysis was performed. It was established that anthropometric indices of male and female students had statistically significant differences. The BMI assessment of students demonstrated that overweight and obesity more often observed in boys, as underweight in girls (p=0,026). The analysis of strength index of students physique established that insufficient development of skeletal muscles, requiring correction, was detected in 58,4% of girls and 33,3% of boys. The factor analysis of complex of factors determined that most completely explained relationship between criteria for physical development of students (p<0,001).