Healthy lifestyle in vogue

A school student walking down a street with a bottle of beer or a cigarette will not surprise any onlooker these days. Ukraine ranks among Europe’s leading countries in terms of juvenile smokers and drinkers. The sad consequences of this unhealthy life style are being felt today. Ukraine’s official medical statistics point to a 10-percent drop in the number of teenagers with a clean bill of health. Experts say one of the reasons is the proliferation of various ills, including respiratory diseases, little movement, irrational use of leisure time, long periods of time spent in front of a computer, watching television, obsession with cell phones, and harmful habits.

There is a number of government programs aimed at improving the nation’s health, particularly that of the younger generation. These programs, however, prove less than effective because they target the masses, whereas experts at the State Institute for the Development of Family and Youth insist that an individual approach is the only way to obtain positive results. In their opinion, one of the options is getting young people involved in volunteer movements and helping them work out an active approach to life. More on this in the following interview with Natalia ROMANOVA, head of the IDFY’s Healthy Lifestyle Center.

Ms. Romanova, what is the attitude of our young people to their health and what do they understand by a healthy life?

“Our institute’s studies show that nearly 96 percent of college and university students believe that their physical health level is average or good. We asked how they felt about narcotic drugs and 83 percent showed a negative attitude — but only 21 percent were opposed to alcohol. Nearly seven percent didn’t mind early sex and most of the respondents regarded this as normal practice. Almost 99 percent condemned suicide. In other words, our young people have varying attitudes to their health. Their acquiescent stand on alcoholic beverages is rather a matter of mentality, ideology, and the result of the great many beer ads and commercials.

“As for premarital sex, this is something in vogue. With regard to other aspects, our young people start considering their health when faced with certain problems. At present, every tenth child cannot attend PT lessons for reasons of health. Regrettably, we have recently been supplied an increasing amount of negative information showing how many children and teenagers are drinking alcoholic beverages, using drugs, and no information about what our healthy youth has been doing.

“This [media] trend originates from the 1990s, but I do not wish to analyze any negative trends, considering that we hear and read about them so often. We must now discuss ways to preserve our healthy children and young people. Here it is important to take into account the younger generation’s values and moral stands. Health comes first (97 percent, according to our polls), followed by a solid family, personal peace, no anxiety, and a possibility to realize one’s talent and skills (93 percent, fourth place). This value hierarchy indicates that our young people aren’t too bad; they are indeed thinking about what they will have to do and how.

“There are 11 laws and national programs currently in effect in Ukraine, each concerning health care in some way or another. Most of these prove ineffective because they provide for measures that target the masses. To make them effective, an individual approach is required.

“A healthy lifestyle ideology has to be worked out on an individual basis. Here work has to be done on two levels — on the government level when it comes to the concept of a healthy lifestyle. There is no official concept of this kind. There are programs authored by the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports and by the Ministry of Public Health, but neither provides for a healthy lifestyle. It is also necessary to shape youth subcultures. Our studies attract young people who adhere to a healthy lifestyle and consider it to be fashionable, prestigious, and interesting. So far this effort has been maintained only by our institute, but with time this practice will be implemented on a nationwide basis.”

Do you think that this volunteer effort could encourage our young people to adopt a healthy lifestyle? Does this active way of life guarantee good health?

“Young people are currently involved in environmental and social service projects on an increasing scale. In most cases such volunteers are college students, future experts in their respective fields who find this work interesting and are determined to realize their potential.

“Our institute is running the program ‘Student Youth Training Studies.’ It was launched in 1996 as an experimental school for young researchers and students interested in healthy lifestyle programs and capable of promoting them. These people carry out studies, develop training programs, write research papers, and work as schoolteachers and university lecturers.

“Over the past four years we have produced approximately 100 student volunteers who came from a number of Kyiv-based higher education institutions and who had worked as schoolteachers, most notably activists from Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Drahomanov University, Shevchenko Kyiv National University, and Kyiv Polytechnic University. Our project recently attracted foreigners who can conduct such training sessions in English, thus propagandizing a healthy lifestyle among the foreign students enrolled in the Ukrainian universities. We have succeeded in shaping compact youth communities that are genuinely concerned about their health. We’re working with students because they constitute the most promising social category. After graduating from college, they will find jobs, and some will hold important posts and will thus be able to influence their subordinates or colleagues.

“Our program is being implemented in the city of Kyiv, as well as in Rivne and Cherkasy oblasts, including raion centers. There we have youth lifestyle debate clubs. There is also a puppet show studio in Horodyshche (Cherkasy oblast). Its performances demonstrate how a person can switch to a positive lifestyle. There are also several programs that offer video lectures and training.

“Our experience shows that this is an effective method of dealing with the younger generation. The thing is that active individuals tend to adopt a healthy lifestyle, as well as promote it among their peers. Those who come to us are physically inactive young people who want to know about the right kind of diet, motion dynamics — these people want something for themselves, not for others.”

What do you think should be the ideology of a healthy lifestyle all about?

“In terms of national health, a healthy lifestyle should be one of the directions of the national policies. In fact, it should be an ideology, on a par with the program of national-patriotic education of the younger generation, because patriotism, love for one’s Fatherland, and preserving one’s good health are the foundations on which we can build a stronger state. Therefore, we need a national concept of a healthy lifestyle. This concept will be effective only if it has a separate clause providing for efforts with regard to every category of the population, particularly the younger generation.

“There are many programs, and young people take part in them, but the efficiency of these programs is low: it would be good if one-third of attendees would benefit from them in some way. Our young people will, nevertheless, make every effort to keep themselves healthy. The economic situation is changing, so everyone has to struggle to keep more or less fit.

“There has appeared a need for a new ideology, when smoking or drinking beer will not be in vogue, whereas upholding a way of life that is interesting for a particular young person and his or her peers is fashionable. I believe that our young people will develop a fancy for hiking and other activities that don’t cost too much and have nothing to do with harmful trends. World trends will also have their effect on our youth; changing stereotypes always entail many other changes. Today, a number of young people want to know what they can do to keep healthy, wealthy, and wise.”