Social values and problems of health saving of the student youth

The paper presents the results of a study conducted by the Center for Social and Political Studies to determine the social values and health problems of modern students, current health practices and significant social factors affecting their choice. The data obtained allow us to state the positive dynamics in the formation of a healthy lifestyle, the rejection of bad habits, the growing popularity of the ideas and practices of healthy lifestyle, the number of adherents of a healthy lifestyle among students. The study reveals a close connection of health, health-saving and health-destroying practices with the students' assessment of their health. The most significant factors seem to reflect the socio-cultural trends of fashion for health and social inequality, economic stratification, low status. One of the most urgent problems is the marked connection of the growth of fixed bad habits with a decrease in the level of material prosperity of students. The authors consider paradox of the growing role of healthy lifestyle among young people against the background of dominance of instrumental value of health over the terminal, which determines the reactivity, tactical rather than strategic nature of health of a significant proportion of students.