Article
The purpose: to assess personal and professional readiness for effective promotion of physical activity in future medical practice and to compare the level of physical literacy and physical activity of 6th-year students of the pediatric and medical-preventive faculties of a medical university.
Methods and organization of the research. The research method includes a survey consisting of 25 questions based on the model of the Erasmus+ project "Physical Literacy for Life," aimed at defining, promoting, and practically implementing the concept of physical literacy. The article analyzes physical literacy and daily physical activity of medical students as a predictor of their preparedness for conducting preventive work with the population and counseling individuals on physical activity and healthy lifestyle. The questionnaire included answer options which, depending on the content interpretation, were conditionally categorized as high, medium, and low levels. Data were grouped by percentage of responses. For data processing, the non-parametric statistical χ² test was used to verify differences between the frequencies of two samples. Statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05. All calculations were performed using the specialized software IBM SPSS Statistics, version 26 (IBM Corporation, USA).
Results and discussion. The survey results revealed significant differences in physical activity between students of the pediatric and medical-preventive faculties. All students are aware of the positive impact of physical activity on the body; however, not all of them lead an active lifestyle themselves, indicating the need to develop physical literacy among medical students across different specialties.
Conclusion. The results made it possible to assess the level of theoretical and practical preparedness of medical students regarding physical literacy and physical activity, and to develop recommendations for optimizing the educational process.
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