Morphofunctional and psychophysiological body indicators in monitoring students’ health status, in view of their adjustment to academic environment

Abstract

Students’ adjustment to higher education process depends largely on the body’s individual features. The student’s physiological and psychological status, as well as the initial motivational setting attitudes are the determining factors. Given this backcloth, the search for ways to improve the health, while aiming at enhancing future qualified specialists’ working and adjustment capacity, appears to be an issue of utmost importance.Material and methods. A longitudinal study involving university students of different years was carried out, through which anthropometric data were evaluated for the same students in their 1st year and then – in their 2nd year of training; the concentration of testosterone and cortisol in saliva, thyroid-stimulating hormone and triiodothyronine in blood serum was measured by ELISA; also, psychophysiological values were estimated through unified questionnaires.Results. The results showed that over the course of education, the students had their hemoglobin concentration, average hemoglobin content in erythrocytes, and leukocyte number decreased. Notable was a significant increase in 3rd year students’ thyroid-stimulating hormone content and a decrease of triiodothyronine and testosterone. A test relying on the Buss – Durkee Hostility Inventory helped to detect an increase in the aggression and suspicion criterion indicators among senior students if matched versus similar values obtained for their freshmen-counterparts.Conclusions. The research outcomes expand the informational and the methodological base required to evaluate an average student’s functional status from the standpoint of a systematic approach and the theory of the norm. Besides, such data will offer an insight into the main mechanisms behind stressinducing, just like stress-limiting, adjustment strategies. This study of the morphofunctional status indicators allows – while within the annual health monitoring approach – identifying the regulatory and the adjustment capacities in students, both at the time they are enrolled as freshmen and further, thus helping predict the potential risk of maladjustment, which, in turn, may serve a useful tool in taking preventive measures, the final goal being to maintain students’ health through their higher education training period.