The Influence of Gender and the Specificity of Sports Activities on the Performance of Body Balance for Students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports

George Danut Mocanu; Gabriel Murariu; Ilie Onu; Georgian Badicu

doi:10.3390/ijerph19137672

The Influence of Gender and the Specificity of Sports Activities on the Performance of Body Balance for Students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 23;19(13):7672. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137672.

Authors

George Danut Mocanu¹, Gabriel Murariu², Ilie Onu³, Georgian Badicu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, 47 Domneasca Street, 800008 Galati, Romania.
² Faculty of Sciences and Environment, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, 47 Domneasca Street, 800008 Galati, Romania.
³ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Grigore T. Popa" Iasi, 700454 Iasi, Romania.
⁴ Department of Physical Education and Special Motricity, Transilvania University of Brasov, 29 Eroilor Blvd., 500036 Brasov, Romania.

Abstract

A sense of balance is required in sports activities, conditioning the quality of movements and physical performance. (1) The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of gender and the specificity of sports activities on body balance. The investigated participants are 157 students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports/Bachelor’s degree: 109 men (age = 20.49 ± 2.03, body mass index, BMI = 22.96 ± 3.20), and 48 women (age = 20.21 ± 1.51, BMI = 21.05 ± 2.78). (2) Design: Cross-sectional study, with the definition of the variables gender and sport activity with three stages (non-athletes/NA, team sports games/TSG, and individual sports/IS). The evaluation was based on four dynamic balance tests (Bass test/points, Functional reach test/cm, Fukuda test/degrees of rotation, and Walk and turn field sobriety test/errors) and three static balance tests (Flamingo test/falls, Stork test, and One-leg standing test with eyes closed/s). (3) Results: The variance analysis (multivariate and univariate tests) indicates the superiority of women in most tests applied, but with significantly better values (p < 0.05) only for the Flamingo test and Bass test. Men have superior results only for vestibular stability (Fukuda test) and One-leg standing test, but it is statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). The TSG group has slightly better values than the IS group for the whole set of tests conducted, but these are not statistically significant (p > 0.05), so we cannot highlight the certain superiority of TSG practitioners over those involved in IS. Both the TSG and the IS group outperformed all tests compared to the NA group, with significant differences (p < 0.05), especially for the TSG. Conclusion: Women have better values than men on most tests, and performance sports students have higher average scores than those in the NA group, which demonstrates the beneficial influence of specific training on static and dynamic postural stability.

Keywords: evaluation; gender differences; sports activity; static and dynamic balance; university students.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Athletic Performance*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Faculty
Female
Humans
Male
Physical Education and Training*
Postural Balance
Students
Young Adult

Grants and funding

The work of Gabriel Murariu (G.M.) and George Danut Mocanu (G.D.M.) were supported by the “Grant intern de cercetare in domeniul Ingineriei Mediului privind studierea distribuției factorilor poluanți in zona de Sud Est a Europei” contract de finanțare nr. 14886/11.05.2022—“Internal research grant in the field of Environmental Engineering regarding the study of the distribution of pollutants in the South East Europe area”—Financing agreement no. 14886/11.05.2022 University of the Dunarea de Jos University of Galati.