Reasons for sports discontinuation: a retrospective analysis of the physical activity in medical students

Objective: to study the prevalence of school sports activities and the reasons of retirement from sport among first-year medical students.Materials and methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 851 students (577 girls and 274 boys) entered Medical School in the period of 2016-2022 using the questionnaire data.Results: 79.9 % boys responded positively on the question about their past physical activities and sport in comparison with 71.1 % girls (р = 0,0064). At the time of the survey 257 students had retired from sport (40,9 % of all young men involving into sport during school time), more frequent among girls compared with boys (46,6 % and 30,1 % respectively, р = 0,0001). Injures and diseases led to early retirement from sport in 13.2 % of students. The most common reason of sports retirement was other reasons (more than 50 % of students), while the lack of sports success occurred 11–18 times rarer, as were physical difficulties in endurance of sport activities. 34,2 % of the respondents retired from sport noted some health disorders at the questioning moment, the rate of them was significantly higher than among students continuing sport trainings. The same results were obtained in the quantity of subjective health complaints (р < 0,05 for both genders). Correlation analysis revealed that both past (r = 0,10) and present (r = 0,12) physical activity increased the health level (р < 0,05) and also reduced the M. Luscher color test index (r = -0,069 и r = -0,098 respectively).Conclusion: Health disorders remain the common problem among first-year students, however sports activity increases the health level and decreases the psychoemotional strain. Sports injury and health disorders were among the most frequent and differential causes of retirement from sport.