Self-assessment of health by the Sverdlovsk Region students: a monitoring study[Самооценка Здоровья Студентов Свердловской Области: Мониторинговое Исследование]

The article presents the results of the VIII stage of the long-term monitoring of the opinions, assessments and value attitudes of university students in the Middle Urals from 2012 to 2020. The relevance of the study of attitudes and ideas associated with a healthy lifestyle of students is noted, as students are one of the most active and promising groups of the population. The emphasis is made on the fact that the attitudes and practices of a healthy lifestyle are formed under the influence of the environment, where the main role is played by the state policy. A theoretical review of approaches to the essence of the phenomenon of “healthy lifestyle” is given. The importance of the study of self-assessments of respondents’ health is discussed. The methodological basis of the article is the resource-based approach. Quota sampling: in 2020 N = 2000; in 2016 N = 1827; in 2012 N = 1802. The research results were processed in the SPSS program. The purpose of the study is to identify trends in the lifestyle and state of their own health among students of higher educational institutions of the Sverdlovsk region from 2012 to 2020. During this part of research, we recorded self-assessments regarding the state of their own health and lifestyle of students of higher educational institutions of the Sverdlovsk region in 2020, analyzed the dynamic changes in these criteria in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and calculated the average according to these criteria. It was revealed that health remains the main value in the subjective assessments of young people. The level of students’ involvement in healthy lifestyle promotion, self-assessment of health and their own habits were determined. The main conclusion of the article is that the pandemic of coronavirus infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 did not lead to dramatic changes in key indicators: the value of health, the level of interest in physical education and sports as a leisure activity, self-assessment of health and lifestyle. The relevance of the results of such monitoring studies for making managerial decisions by executive authorities is emphasized, as well as the importance of the development and implementation of regional target programs.