Sociological research results

“Senior pupils and first-year students’ lifestyle in the city of Stavropol”

Stavropol, 2008

Contents

At the present time according to different estimates a share of healthcare responsibility for a state of public health ranges from 8-10 to 30-45% of all economic, behavior, hereditary-genetic, natural-climatic and other genesis factors affecting public health.(Lisitsyn Yu.P., 1989, 1998; Tyukov Yu.A. 2001; Vyalkov A.I., Reidberg B.A., Shilenko Yu. 2002). Lifestyle is the main factor determining people’s health (Peto D., Darby S., Deo H.et al., 2000; Pihl E., Turimae T., 2001).

According to Ruth Bonita, Derek Yach (2005) eight risk factors determine cardiovascular pathology genesis to the great extent which is the main death reason: tobacco and alcohol use, hypodynamia, a low level of vegetables and fruit consumption, obesity, a blood pressure level, a cholesterol level and diabetes.

According to national scientists calculations lifestyle’s contribution into health is 50-55% (Lisitsyn Yu.P., 1998). It’s noted that 52% of men deaths of malignancy and 97% of lungs cancer are caused by smoking, as for women these indices are 7% and 49% accordingly; a men death-rate of blood circulation system diseases is 29%, as for women it’s 3%. It’s worth mentioning that Russian men death rate of malignancy and blood circulation system diseases caused by smoking as the only risk factor is one of the highest in Europe. All in all nearly 300000 people die of smoking related diseases in Russia annually (Maslennikova G.Ya., Oganov R.G., 2002).

I.                  Methodological section of the programme

1.1Motivation of an empiric data collection method

Carrying out a questionnaire survey is an empiric data collection method used in our research.

1.2 Definition of groups under survey

 A structure of the institutions under survey is as following:

In our research a survey was carried out in the Stavropol educational institutions of different profiles.

The number of people under survey is 727 (confidential probability is 95%, confidential interval is 3,5 %).

The results were estimated on the “educational institutions” variable to get a whole picture of the Stavropol youth behaviour peculiarities under survey.

Thus 268 pupils, 270 professional education institutions students and 189 higher educational institutions students took part in the survey.

43,3% of the respondents were youths, 56,7% - girls. The respondents’ age is following:

Among the respondents there were 74,8% of Orthodox believers, 6,9% - Muslims, 0,1% - Jews. 4,3% practice other religion. 13,9 % accepted themselves as atheists.

Religion plays an important role in the life of 11,7% of youth. 58,5% of youth accept the importance of religion. Nearly a quarter of respondents note that religion isn’t important for them. 4,7 % deny religious values importance.

68,0% of youth live in complete families, 27,9% - in incomplete families, 4,1 % - in other types of families.

59,6% of respondents are native residents of the city of Stavropol. The rest respondents are newcomers.

II.              Sociological research results

The respondents majority (38,3%) estimated their health as good, 12,6 % - as excellent. Besides 19,5% and 40,7% of male respondents consider themselves more healthy than female (6,6% and 36,1% respectively). Professional educational institutions students estimated their health worst of all. 11,4% students chose “Not very good” variant.

Last year 70,3 % of respondents missed classes due to diseases. From that number 39,3% of students missed classes 1-2 times, 18,4% - 3-5 times, 7,9% -      6-10 times,3,3 %- 11- 20 times, 0,4 % -more than 20 times. 29,7% of students didn’t miss a lesson.

As you can see on the first and the second diagrams most of all the classes are missed by the girls(77,1%) due to diseases as well as professional educational institutions students(74,1%). 66,2% of respondents saw doctors as a result of disease.

2.2 Nutrition issues

The members of complete families never have breakfast more rare than members of incomplete families – 6,2% against 16,9%. The majority of having breakfast every morning is from the families with two parents – 55,8%.

2.3 Leisure

Here are the answers to the question: “How many days a week do you go in for sport?”

To get a complete picture of leisure activities it’s necessary to clear up the respondents’ commitment to passive activities: watching TV, DVD, playing computer games.

49,2% watch TV up to 2 hours a day, 46,4% - more than 2 hours a day, the rest 4,4% don’t watch TV at all. The number of youths watching TV 3 hours a day is more than girls’ number (51,0% and 42,3%accordingly). It’s interesting that professional education institutions students are keen on watching TV (57,9% watch TV more than 3 hours a day).

More than a half of young people spend time in front of the computer less than 2 hours a day, 37,3% - more than 2 hours. 11,2 % of the respondents don’t play computer games. A number of girls sitting at computers more than 2hours a day is considerably smaller than the number of youths (27,8% and 48,4% accordingly). Schoolchildren are addicted to computers less than other groups (28,3%).

Data got at detailed analysis show that only 26,9% of all respondents spend time at computers and watch TV less than 3 hours a day. Comparing these data with active leisure activities data (18 and 21 questions) the following figure becomes clear: the number of young people who are keen on active lifestyle is 23,4% of all respondents.

2.4 Alcohol and smoking…

Smoking. 35,1% of respondents don’t smoke and have never smoked. 21,3% have tried to smoke and 7,7% have already given up. 10,3% smoke from time to time. 25,6 % don’t listen to Ministry of Health warning and smoke every day.

It’s worth mentioning that youth’s and girls’ attitude to smoking differs a great deal (diagram 6). A half of schoolchildren haven’t tried to smoke. 38,2% of technical colleges students smoke every day.

The interrelation between a lack of this bad habit and an importance of religion for a young person is of great interest. The survey results showed that the more religious values are acknowledged the more a person resists bad habits. 47,2% of respondents accepting religious values have never smoked. 36,7% chose the answer ”Religion is important”. Religion is of no great importance for 28,1% of young people who have never smoked. 6,5% of young people who have never smoked haven’t any religious feelings at all.

It’s not so easy to find out the age at which young people started to smoke. 8,9% of students tried to smoke at primary school; 5,0% - at the age of 11; 6,0% - at 12 years; 5,2% - at 13 years.14-16 years is a critical age. More than 30% of students started smoking at this age.

We are worried about the fact that more than a half of young people is neutral to smoking. 35,8% of students assessed smoking negatively but 11,0% -positively. It’s interesting that positive assessments are given not only by smokers but by non-smokers as well. The percentage of those who condemn smoking is higher among schoolchildren than among technical colleges and higher educational institutions students (46,2%, 33,2%,34,5% accordingly).

Though the majority of the respondents don’t have a negative attitude to smoking 65,1 % of students are aware of a serious health risk of smoking. About third of young people acknowledges risk availability but they define its rate as average. More than 5% think that risk is small.

Alcohol. A third of respondents has never tasted alcohol drinks. Accordingly two thirds acknowledged they used alcohol drinks.

Alcohol use depends on the age and religious views (in senior groups the number of alcohol users is increasing; the more important is religion the less alcohol is used).

More than a half of schoolchildren and 65,1% of Muslims don’t use alcohol drinks. Here are the answers to a question “How often did you drink 0,5litre of beer or 100 ml of alcohol for last two weeks?”:

Common trends for alcohol addiction are being preserved.

6,7 % of the respondents got used to adult life through alcohol too early – under the age of 10 years (these are boys and those who don’t practice any religion). 14-16 years is the most intensive period for the first use of alcohol. It’s interesting that 15-16 years is the most intensive period for the newcomers to test alcohol (18,5% and 19,7%). As for native residents they start to test alcohol at 14-15 years (16,6% and 14,9 %).

         More than 60% of students estimated a state of alcoholic intoxication negatively. A third of respondents gave a neutral estimation and 5,6% of young people characterized it positively. The unbelievers(11,9) and those for whom religion is of no great importance (29,0%) estimate it positively.

Marijuana. A majority of respondents (81,2%) didn’t try to use marijuana. 11,7% used it 1-2 times; 1,9% used it 3-4 times;1,0% - 5-6 times; 0,9% - 7 -10 times; 3,4% - more than 10 times. Among those who use marijuana often is a group of youths (7,2%), young people above 19 years of age (9,6 %), unbelievers (8,3%) and those ignoring religious values (9,4%). A group of young people practicing another religion stood out against a background: 23,3% used marijuana more than 5 times.

3 persons were under 10 years of age when they used it for the first time. 16 -17 years is the period of marijuana testing (4,7% and 7,5% accordingly).

77,6% of young people gave a negative answer to the question: “What is your assessment of the marijuana-user of your age?” We are worried about the fact that nearly 20% gave a neutral assessment. This number comprises both marijuana-users and those who didn’t test it. 2,5% of young people gave positive assessment , most of them are marijuana-users.

60,5% of young people think that marijuana use is injurious for health; 27,0% noted its high risk for organism. 6,3% gave a neutral assessment. 5,2% of Stavropol young people think that health risk is very low. Girls believe in serious threat of marijuana use to a great extent more than youths (72,2% and 46,7% accordingly).

Ecstasy, cocaine. 98,8% have never used ecstasy or cocaine. 86,5% estimated such type of drugs use negatively. 11,9% gave a neutral assessment and 1,6% - a positive one.

We are worried about the fact that a positive assessment was given also by those who hadn’t used ecstasy yet.

Intravenous drugs. 99,7% said that they hadn’t used intravenous drugs.

89,7 % of young people were aware of a very high health risk of intravenous drugs; 7,3% - of a high risk; 0,7 % of respondents assessed a health risk as medium; 1,2 % - as low. 1,2% stated about a complete absence of health risk.

2.5. Have you friends?

Young people’s environment study plays a very important role for our research. A referent group of youths and girls is of great interest. A referent group is a real or abstract social community to which an individual refers oneself as an etalon, whose standards, opinions, values are an example to follow. It has mainly two functions: normative and comparative. Normative function is in a group motivating influence serving as a source of codes of conduct, social attitudes and value system for an individual. A comparative function is in perceptive processes: a referent group serves as an etalon for an individual to assess himself and others.

So 18,6 % of young people have a real friend; 53,3% have 2-5 friends. 19,5% have more than 5 friends. 8,6% have no real friends. It’s worth mentioning that Muslims gave a quite different proportion of answers (Diagram 9)

Our respondents apply to their friends when they have problems (60,3%). The second popular option was a mother (46,3%). 27,8% of young people apply to their sisters and brothers; 18,4% - to a father; 5,9% - to another member of a family. Not more than 6,0% can apply to school community. 13,2 % won’t apply to anybody for advice and try to solve problems themselves.

2.6 About sexual relations…

41,3% of respondents have never had sexual contacts. The rest 58,7% had sexual contacts; 7% of this number - only once; 32,4% -several times; 19,3% do it very often.

Among those respondents having sexual contacts 66,6% prefer protected sex, so they use contraceptives. 27,8% use them sometimes. 5,6% of young people never use contraceptives.

42% of young people had no constant sexual partner for the last year. 15,9 % had only one contact; 10,6% - 2 contacts; 15,5% of the respondents had more than 2 contacts.

The following answers to a question about violent sex were given: 94,9% of young people have never suffered from violence. 3,4 % of youth were forced to sex once. 1,7% were forced to sex not once.

Such a phenomenon as homosexuality gives rise to different attitude. 75,3% of the respondents deny a possibility of friendship with homosexuals in a categorical way. The males’ and females’ answers to a question about homosexuality are different.

2.7. Several questions about HIV/AIDS

99,4% of young people have heard about HIV/AIDS.

Questions № 71-77, 79 and 81 identify young people’s knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission. 0,6% of those who have heard about HIV/AIDS couldn’t answer questions correctly. Only 3,7% answered all the questions correctly.

Schoolchildren, girls, respondents practicing another religion and those for whom religion is of no importance are aware of HIV/AIDS transmission to a great extent.

Rate of correct answers:

So, the level of knowledge about sexually transmitted HIV/AIDS is high. At the same time the questions about possibility of HIV/AIDS transmission in everyday life raised a lot of difficulties.

Attitude to HIV positive is quite unambiguous. 77,5 % agreed to take care of HIV positive’s relative but only 14,5% agreed to buy vegetables in the case of the HIV positive seller.

2.8 If I were a mayor..

Only half of the respondents (55,4%) answered the last question “ What would you do for young people if you were a mayor?”. 44,6% didn’t answer this question.

Results

Health. As a whole Stavropol youth estimate its health as good. Youths believe themselves healthier than girls.

Leisure. More than a half of Stavropol youth spend their free time quite in an active way. Schoolchildren walk and go in for sport more often. But more students are the members of different sport groups. Less than a third part of the respondents spend their time at computers and TV less than 3 hours a day. So a little more than one fifth part of Stavropol youths and girls has active way of life.

Bad habits. Every fourth young person of the city of Stavropol smokes. Two thirds use alcohol drinks. Nobody confessed of drugs use. Smoking and drinking is started from 14 and 16 years more often. In principle smoking and alcohol use don’t cause such negative reactions as drugs use.

Friends. In the period of early youth friends play a very important role in the life of the respondents. Every fifth student applies for help only to a friend. This category mainly consists of newcomers. It may be said about bad habits spread among company-members.

Intimate relations. The majority of respondents have a close friend. More than a half of the respondents has already had intimate connection and prefer protected sexual contact believing it a panacea against pregnancy in the first place and then against different sexually transmitted diseases. Negative attitude to contraceptives as well as unawareness of their qualities are the main reasons for their unwillingness to use them. Nobody was subjected to violence, only 5% of young people were forced to sexual contacts. A great part of young people is intolerant to nontraditional orientation people, youths to a great extent than girls.

HIV/AIDS awareness. Sexually transmitted HIV/AIDS awareness is high. The questions about possibility of HIV/AIDS transmission in everyday life raised a lot of difficulties. Attitude to HIV positive is quite unambiguous.

Literature.

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3.Lisitsyn Yu.P. Medicine theory at the turn of the centuries – XX and XXI, Yu.P. Lisitsyn, M.,1998- pages 23-89

4. Maslennikova G.Ya. Smoking impact on people’s health: Russia’s position in Europe, G.Ya. Maslennikova, R.G.Oganov, Disease prevention and health protection.- 2002 №6 – pages 17 – 20

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