The impact of physical activity on the quality of life of uniformed services

Abstract

Introduction: Public health covers almost all spheres of life that affect the well-being of the society.  However, the most important in this process is the personal lifestyle and the related physical activity, which significantly affects health and the sense of personal satisfaction.
For representatives of uniformed services, physical fitness is an extremely important element
of everyday professional work and directly affects the effectiveness of actions taken. Aim of the research: The aim of the research was to learn about health behaviors related to physical activity and a subjective assessment of life satisfaction of representatives of the uniformed services of the Army and Police. Material and methods: The survey was conducted among 87 representatives of the power ministries: 47 professional soldiers and 40 policemen.  For subjective assessment
of physical fitness, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used. Based
on the standardized WHO questionnaire assessing the quality of life (WHOQOL), the subjective level of quality and life satisfaction of representatives of uniformed services was examined. Results: The obtained data indicated that 67.82% of representatives of uniformed services assess their physical activity at the level of  sufficient, and 2.29% of respondents describe their quality of life as unsatisfactory. Representatives of uniformed services largely experience a sense of joy in their lives. Only 5.75% revealed that such a condition occurs in them little or no, and 52.5%
of police officers and 40.43% of professional soldiers declared that physical activity was largely important in their lives.  83% of professional soldiers and 50% of policemen feel a very good sense of their own safety in everyday life. Conclusions: Soldiers most often engage in intense physical activity as part of their professional work, and also exercise more frequently in the open air.  Police officers show greater awareness of self-satisfaction, readiness to work, relationships with people, housing conditions, and material wealth. They are also most often involved
in intense physical activity, which they undertake on average 4 times a week, both during the service and in their free time.  Sporadically chosen form of spending free time by policemen is: playing on the console, tablet, phone;however, they often use means of transport (car, bus, tram).