The role of swimming in preserving health

Abstract

The health of the Hungarian population is extremely poor. All of this is influenced by a number of components such as a sedentary lifestyle, inadequate nutrition, but stress is also a serious risk factor in people’s lives. It is worth taking various preventive measures against the negative effects, of which swimming can be an excellent tool. Swimming is a sport that people consider to be one of the healthiest. In our research, we were curious about how people view this form of movement and whether they are aware of the areas in which it exerts its multifaceted positive impact. We sought answers to these and similar questions in our research. The study involved 126 people, all over the age of 40 (mean age 49.84 years). People over the age of 40 already think differently about their health, as the problems that characterize our society are already emerging. 67% of the the monitored group had some form of the disease. Stress is present in 21.4% of people surveyed, musculoskeletal disorders in 18.25%, obesity in 17.4%, hypertension in 15.5%, and allergies or asthma in 15%. The incidence of cardiovascular disease in the study sample was 11%, respiratory disease 7.1%, diabetes 5.5%, osteoporosis 4.7%, and cancer incidence 3.9%, 3.9% have other diseases. Our method was online interviewing. Our results show that the multifaceted, positive effects of swimming are largely known to humans. 89.6% of the sample believe that swimming is very or significantly useful in the case of problems affecting the support system, 81.7% also in the improvement of posture, 70.6% in the case of cardiovascular diseases as well. 70.6% of the sample is aware of the positive role of swimming in relieving stress. In the case of cardiovascular diseases and cancers, which are the most common in Hungary, we found that although swimming is considered effective (70.6%) in relation to cardiovascular diseases, its role is not considered to be as effective. such as for spinal problems. It is considered less effective in the case of hypertension (46.7%), while only 23.8% of respondents consider it to be relevant in the case of cancer. 75% of participants consider the sport to be beneficial in relation to obesity, while only 43.6% consider it to be so in relation to diabetes DOI: https://doi.org/10.24040/sjss.2020.6.2.30-40

Keywords

• swimming, health, health preservation