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Profiles of subjective sense of health and survival ability by top powerlifters

Abstract

Background and Study Aim: Lifestyle seems to be the most crucial factor influencing health. The quality of health is primarily assessed by objective medical criteria, which can however be additionally verified by comparing individual indicators with a subjective feeling. The aim of the research is knowledge of the subjective sense of positive health and survival ability top powerlifters in relation to their sex, age, declared physical activity, BMI.

Material and Method: The study involved 103 athletes participating in the European Championships in powerlifting, which was held in Poland in 2017. The group consisted of 75 men (72.8%) and 28 women (27.2%), aged 17-72 years (  34.9 ±13.9). The profiles were based on various health dimensions measured before the contest with the Sense of Positive Health and Survival Abilities questionnaire (SPHSA), a self-assessment tool in which the sense of intensity of particular indices is evaluated in 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the highest value. To compare factors determining health profiles, we applied non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test to examine the indices for two independent samples, as well as Kruskal-Wallis test when three independent variables were involved.

Results: General SPHSA index of all the tested powerlifters amounted to 3.81 ±0.50 points. The sportsmen evaluated their sense of social health the highest (  = 4.32 ±0.71), whereas mental health the lowest (  = 3.30 ±0.77).Among the variables determining individual mental health profiles, significant differences (p<0.05) were found in relation to BMI in obese persons with a high value (  = 3.56 ±0.67) compared to the correct BMI indicator ( = 2.99 ±0.78). A significant difference was also evidenced in the somatic health profile concerning declared physical activity, with higher values visible in athletes with high reported activity ( = 4.07 ±0.61) compared to those with the average one (  = 3.74 ±0.55). No significant differences were observed in relation to gender and age.

Conclusions: Knowledge of the subjective profiles of own health in powerlifters might lead to similar evaluations in athletes of other disciplines. The overall index of subjective health assessment of the leading European lifters corresponds to the one in the researched students. However, another configuration of individual profiles is visible with regard to the dimension of social health.