Hygienic assessment of the intensity of educational activities of students in the lesson

Introduction. The increasing volume of information in modern schools, including the development of information and communication technologies, the high likelihood of students developing academic fatigue, and the increased risk of developing school-related conditions and diseases, necessitate an objective hygienic assessment, control, and monitoring of the intensity of academic activities.

Materials and methods. Time-lapse observations in students in grades 10 and 11 based on video recordings of fifty eight lessons in the main subjects, excluding physical education and life safety classes, during one school week.

Results. The article identifies the types of educational activities that are hygienically significant for assessing the exhaustion in students during lessons, and provides a description of the intellectual, informational, and emotional loads, as well as the monotony of the loads and the working conditions in students during lessons. The article also establishes the intensity of the educational process to be largely determined by the intellectual loads in high school students. The high density of the lesson and the students’ focus on their academic work, as well as the frequent changes in the types of educational activities, the use of various teaching tools, including simultaneous use, and the prevalence of high-level educational activities with complex algorithms, indicate to a relatively high level of intellectual activity among students during lessons.

Limitations. The study is limited to a sample of indicators that characterize the management of educational activities for students at the secondary general education stage, which does not allow for full extrapolation of the obtained data to the primary general and secondary general education stages.

Conclusion. To objectively assess the academic workload and intensity of educational activities it is necessary to take into account the complexity of academic tasks and the limited time available for their completion, as well as the monotony of academic work, the use of teaching tools, the presence of a physical component, and the characteristics of the emotional background. These indicators can and should be evaluated from a hygienic perspective during hygienic monitoring (including time-keeping) and subsequently standardized, which highlights the need to develop a methodology for measuring and hygienically assessing the entire range of indicators related to the intensity of educational activities among students of different ages.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was conducted in compliance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association in its current version (WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects). The study was approved by the local Ethics committee of the Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman (minutes of meeting No 5 dated of 6/30/2026). All participants and their legal representatives gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Contribution:
Kuchma V.R., Virabova A.R. — the concept and design of the study, editing;
Polenova M.A. — concept and design of the study, collection and processing of material, analyzing research data, writing text, editing;
Sedova A.S. — the concept and design of the study, analyzing research data, writing text, editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Acknowledgments. We express our gratitude and appreciation to our colleague Marina I. Stepanova, DSc (Medicine), professor, chief researcher, Department of Hygiene of Children, Adolescents, and Youth (Institute of Comprehensive Hygiene Problems, Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman for her participation in discussions during the study planning stage and for her consultations during the data analysis stage.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: June 1, 2026 / Accepted: July 1, 2026 / Published: October 20, 2026

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