Analysis of attitudes to healthy lifestyle, physical education and sports in modern Russia

The article is dedicated to the study of changes in the attitude of Russian citizens to the healthy lifestyle and mass sports. The study is based on the statistical data for 2008-2013, including the results of opinion polls performed by the Yuri Levada Analytical Center, and on the monitoring of indicators of the population’s attitude to physical education and sports on the territory of the Russian Federation for 2008-2012 and on the monitoring of operating efficiency of the executive bodies of Subjects of the Russian Federation for 2011-2012. The topicality of the material is determined by the fact that today only a quarter of the population of Russia is regularly engaged in sports and physical training. The aim of the article is to identify the factors enhancing the formation of healthy lifestyle and to show the interconnection and the necessity of purposeful propaganda of healthy lifestyle and physical education aimed at involving wide masses in regular sports. The study shows a reduction of the number of youth among people paying serious attention to their physical training. At the same time, the study shows the relationship between a positive perception of life and regular sporting. Thus, people who do physical exercises several times a week or daily, feel happy two times more often than those who do sports rarely among the respondents in Russia. So, we can see that there is an urgent need to increase activities propagating healthy lifestyle, mass sports and physical education, particularly as the basic means enhancing the health of the nation, preventing various diseases, combating bad habits and creating a positive perception of life by citizens of the country.