Effectiveness of Comprehensive Health-Promotion Measures in Ufa Pioneer Camps

Assistant G. V. Kolchina

From the K. A. Timiryazev Bashkir Pedagogical Institute

This study was conducted in five Ufa pioneer camps during the summer seasons of 1953–1955. Over this period, the study included 800 children aged 12–13 years. It was based on assessments of health and physical development, blood hemoglobin testing, measurements of skin temperature, examinations of dermographism, and a study of illness 5–6 months after the children’s stay at camp.

The children in 1953, 1954, and 1955 may be considered a homogeneous group in terms of health. The children attending general pioneer camps were mostly healthy, though some were weakened and fatigued by their winter studies. Among them, however, were children with a positive Pirquet reaction and impaired health: they tired easily, were listless, had poorly developed musculature or anemia, or had frequently suffered from “colds” in the past, and so on. A separate group consisted of children with increased nervous excitability: these children were emotionally unstable, had heightened tendon reflexes, and were prone to conflict and capricious behavior, according to their teachers. Clinical examinations paid particular attention to foci of latent infection, such as tonsillitis and chronic otitis, which could give rise to outbreaks of “colds” following exposure to cold.

It should be noted that, throughout the health-promotion program, we relied on observations made during the first few days to refine the selection of children and the preliminary assessment. Physical development standards were used to characterize the children’s physical development. Children whose physical development was below average or disproportionate were not studied.

All health-promotion measures took into account the anatomical and physiological characteristics of children aged 12–13 years. On arrival at camp, the children were first given talks on the importance of following a daily routine and on the role of natural environmental factors in hardening the body.

The hardening procedures included air baths combined with exercise. The baths began at 10–15 minutes; subsequently, we sought to organize the entire day at pioneer camp so that the children spent as much time outdoors as possible and their bodies received greater exposure to air. Therefore, the children [[unclear: sentence continues on the next page]].

…wore shorts and undershirts and went barefoot throughout the day. Daytime naps and nighttime sleep took place with the window vents open, under conditions of ample ventilation.

Sunbathing was conducted in a solarium or on the bank of the Ufa River. The first session lasted 4 minutes, and the duration was increased by 4 minutes each day. On the second day, when the session had been extended to 8 minutes, the children were instructed to turn over twice from back to stomach. On each of the following 2 days, they turned over 4 times, with the time divided equally among exposure of the front, back, and sides of the body. The duration of sunbathing was increased to 45–60 minutes. During sunbathing, air temperature, humidity, and air velocity were measured with the standard instruments used in hygienic practice. On hot days, when the air temperature exceeded 25°, sunbathing took place earlier and was shorter than on cool days. Thanks to strict control of exposure, no burns or complaints of any kind were observed.

Water treatments consisted of showers, bathing, and footbaths. For showers and footbaths, the water temperature was steadily reduced. The initial shower water temperature was 26°, and by the end of the camp session it had been reduced to 12–13° for some children. Drawing on the work of Kh. L. Vilenskaya, M. S. Koziorov, V. G. Luchinsky, O. T. Tarasova, and others, we lowered the shower water temperature by 2° each day until it reached 18°; shower duration ranged from 1 to 1½ minutes. After the child’s body had become accustomed to a shower water temperature of 18°, we again began lowering it by 1° each day to 12–13°; shower duration ranged from 15 to 30 seconds. Showers were taken indoors. Water temperature was measured with a thermometer placed under the stream of water.

Physical exercise also serves to strengthen health, promote proper physical development, and build resistance to environmental stress. The day at camp began with morning calisthenics, consisting of 7–8 exercises performed over 15 minutes; the session ended with a rubdown. After the afternoon snack, various clubs and sports groups met and sports games were played. The girls practiced rhythmic gymnastics. Children who could not swim attended swimming lessons.

Once per camp session, 2–3-day hikes were organized. The walking speed was approximately 3–3.5 km/h. Rest stops were made every 40–45 minutes along the way. During their stay at camp, the children also went on walks to gather vitamin-rich plants and mushrooms. These walks took place near the camp, within a distance of 2–4 km.

The study of the effects of comprehensive health-promoting measures on schoolchildren showed that, thanks to a strict routine, an adequate and balanced diet, and special hardening treatments, the children’s health improved considerably: complaints of headaches disappeared, many children’s appetites improved, a number of functional disorders of the internal organs disappeared in most children, and the condition of the lymph nodes and tonsils improved. Blood hemoglobin levels were found to rise during the children’s stay at camp, with a greater increase in children whose initial levels were low than in those with higher levels. Observation of the changes in hemoglobin showed that the increase occurred during the first 10–12 days after the children arrived at camp.

Assessment of the children’s physical development showed that they gained weight: boys gained an average of 1,046 g and girls 1,104 g.

Height is a more stable measure, and a change in it requires more time than a single camp session. We could therefore not expect any substantial changes in the children’s height, but we observed that the average increase was 0.7 cm in boys and 0.6 cm in girls. Some children grew by 1.5 or even 2 cm, while others grew by 0.5 cm or not at all.

The average increase in chest circumference was 1.7 cm in boys and 1.8 cm in girls, while the average increase in chest excursion was 2.9 cm in boys and 2.3 cm in girls. The average increase in vital capacity was 360 cm³ in boys and 280 cm³ in girls.

By the end of the camp session, both boys and girls showed a substantial increase in right- and left-hand grip strength (see table).

The study showed that hardening treatments improve the skin’s thermoregulatory apparatus. As the shower water temperature is gradually lowered, the skin’s receptor apparatus adapts to the intensity of the stimulus, changes in skin temperature become smaller, and the difference between temperature changes at the chest and foot diminishes.

Foot baths and walking barefoot adapt the skin of the feet to cold. The decrease in skin temperature becomes smaller with each successive measurement. To determine the reflex effect of the cold test on the body, the skin temperature of the forearm was measured after cooling with water at 0°C, together with the time required for the original temperature to be restored. By the end of the camp session, the decrease in skin temperature after local cooling with water at 0°C is considerably smaller, and the time required to restore the original temperature is noticeably shorter (skin temperature was measured with a KTP-2 thermocouple).

The state of the autonomic nervous system was examined by the dermographism method. Several short lines were drawn with a blunt object across the middle of the chest, and their coloration was observed. The duration of the latent period of dermographism was taken into account, as it reflects the varied responses of the autonomic nervous system to different stimuli. Under the influence of the health-promoting procedures, dermographism shifts in a vagotropic direction more favorable to the body.

The improvement in the children’s health and physical development was also reflected in their morbidity. Throughout their stay at the camp, not a single case of a “cold-related illness” was recorded.

A study of morbidity during the first half-year at school shows that it is considerably lower among children who attended camp and received a program of hardening procedures than among children who attended camp but did not receive these procedures.

Conclusions

1. Comprehensive health-promoting measures in large Pioneer camps are a highly effective means of improving the health of schoolchildren on a broad scale, contributing to improvements in well-being and blood composition. Functional disorders of the internal organs disappear, and the children’s capacity for work increases. Their physical development also improves: weight, height, chest circumference and chest excursion increase, as do vital lung capacity and the grip strength of both hands.

2. The systematic application of hardening procedures reduced fluctuations in the skin temperature of the chest, hand and foot during showers of progressively decreasing temperature. This indicates that the body’s adaptation to various stimuli becomes more effective and rapid. With repeated exposure to showers, deviations in the skin temperature of the chest and foot become less pronounced.

3. Repeated cooling of an area of skin reduces deviations in skin temperature and shortens the time required for the temperature at the cooled site to recover.

Received 18 October 1956.