Physical and Health Education for a Resilient Future Workforce

The present study was undertaken on the supposition that in the past 15 years, the weight of young women has increased, implicitly influencing the body mass index values of women and having consequences for the health of the younger generation as they age. Consequently, I assessed some anthropometrical parameters in successive independent samples of Romanian young women. The study goals, beside hypothesis validation, are to estimate the average BMI for the 19-21 year old female population, and to analyse the possible causes and effects of its evolution. The study sample consisted of female students presuming to enter the work market in a few years. There were 121 subjects, with an equivalent number in a control group. The study participants were randomly selected from the female student population who attend physical education classes. Collected data were quantitatively analysed and statistically compared with reference data collected during 1999 and 2000. Discussions about the study’s findings focus on the trends in terms of the measured parameters, and the possible implications and consequences for the health and vigour of the younger generation. The results indicate an increased number of overweight and obese young women in the present sample, compared with the previous data. Considering the study’s conclusions, corroborated with other medical and anthropological results on similar topics, a set of practical recommendations for the education domain have been put forward.