Effectiveness of social hygiene and organized preventive measures in dysentery in preschool institutions]

The work presents the data on the development and realization of the complex of social and hygienic, as well as organizational and preventive measures for dysentery control at institutions for children of preschool age in one of the regions of our country. This complex comprises the improvement of "epidemiological" knowledge of the staff, preventive orientation in the work of the epidemiological section of the local Sanitary Epidemiological Station, the spread of sanitary and hygienic knowledge children and in their families, the improvement of material and technical equipment of children's institutions. The complex proved to be highly effective: at institutions for children of preschool age morbidity -ate in dysentery decrease 4--5 times, and its specific falue dropped from 40% to 5.4%, the frequency of positive results given by tests for the presence of intestinal microflora in washings from various objects decreased more than 25 times. Morbidity rate at institutions for children of preschool age decreased 4--5 times as compared with that among children not attending such institutions. The above data suggest the necessity of introducing this experience in other regions of our country.     

Comparative quantitative studies of mental and physical development of children up to age 3

Biomathematical-methodical aspects are exposed of quantitative recording of mean growth courses which will be taken as basis for comparisons between different sample curves. In the paper the body length growth process of children in the age period from 0 to 3 years is considered. There are samples of children growing up under different social conditions and data of corresponding samples collected about 20 years ago. After remarks on the correlation between physical and psychical development of infants several possibilities for representing mean body length growth curves are discussed. The advantages of empirical regression are explained as the best suited method for a modelfree data evaluation. The nonparametric location trend test of Cox and Stuart is used for statistical proving of global difference or parallelism in the course of 2 mean growth curves. Level differences in the global sense between 2 compared curves may be tested by constructing a Scheffé confidence region for a properly defined constrast. Local level differences can be proved by the t-test for those pairs of corresponding mean values for which the conditions of applying this test are fulfilled. The calculation of a curve-related normal belt as a succession of 95%-tolerance regions (without confidence probability) is demonstrated by an example.     

Growth differences between children of highland and coastal Ecuador

This study examines patterns of growth in height and weight among children (<60 months) of highland and coastal agricultural communities of Ecuador. Highland children are significantly shorter, but not significantly lighter than their coastal peers. Linear growth rates (cm/6 months) are comparable between the two samples. Growth rates for body weight (kg/6 m) are similar in highland and coastal boys, whereas highland girls display larger weight gains than their coastal counterparts. In both regions, linear growth is compromised to a much greater extent than growth in body weight, and growth faltering for both height and weight is most pronounced between birth and 24 months of age. The similarity in growth rates between the highland and coastal samples suggests that high altitude hypoxia plays a relatively small role in shaping growth during the first five years after birth. Rather, it appears that most of the disparity in height between the two samples can be attributed to differences established by 6 months of age. The pattern of growth retardation seen in both regions during the first 24 postnatal months is similar to that observed among impoverished populations throughout the world and is likely associated with the influence of nutritional and disease stressors. After 2 years of age, little or no “catch up” growth is seen in height, whereas improvements in weight gain are more pronounced, especially among highland girls. Ongoing research is investigating the nutritional and socio-economic correlates of growth within each region. © Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

青藏高原与安第斯高原地区儿童青少年的身高、体重和胸围的对比

通过青藏高原和安第斯山高原地区儿童青少年身高、体重和胸围的比对,探讨高原地区儿童青少年生长发育的规律和特点,找出儿童青少年生长发育的高原地区差异,进一步改善高原地区居民的健康状态,促进儿童青少年生长发育,为高原医学和高原人类学的发展提供理论基础。本文以青藏高原和安第斯山高原地区儿童青少年为研究对象。选择在西藏出生长大、经体检证明身体健康6-21岁藏族男女(父母3代藏族)共2813例有效样本(男,1417例;女,1396例),在知情同意情况下直接测量了身高、体重和胸围。印度、秘鲁、玻利维亚、智利等国家和地区儿童青少年生长发育资料从文献中获取。去除不完整的无法比较及年代过于久远的材料,排除小样本及数据不全和不符合要求的样本,严格控制质量。所有测量数据输入SPSS13.0统计软件包。对数据进行描述性统计分析、独立样本t检验、方差分析等统计学处理。结果显示:1)青藏高原儿童青少年男女身高高于安第斯山男女。2)青藏高原儿童青少年的体重与安第斯山儿童青少年相近。3)青藏高原儿童青少年的胸围明显小于安第斯山儿童青少年。高原地区与非高原地区儿童青少年生长发育相比有相似性又有特殊性(如发育水平低,胸径较大,生长发育指标普遍低于WHO(2007)和本国国内水平)。西藏藏族儿童青少年比安第斯山的发育好,两者具有不同的体质特征,这可能与生态环境、高原缺氧、遗传因素和社会经济文化等多种因素有关。     

Schools for health: Focus on health, education and the school-age child

Mortality in children under five years old has been dramatically reduced through successful programmes of immunization and control of diarrhoeal diseases. UNICEF estimates that some 90% of children in developing regions now survive to reach school age. These survivors face new and continuing threats to their health, which can affect their physical development and may also prevent them taking full advantage of their only opportunity for formal education. The physical and mental growth of the 1000 million school-age children today will influence how the world is shaped for coming generations. Yet the health problems of this age group have received little attention. Recognizing the importance of this age group, a workshop funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation was held 10-13 November 1994 in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, USA, to review what is known about the health of school-age children, what is or can be done to improve their health, and what steps must be taken to find ways to improve the health and educational achievement of this important segment of the world's population. Don Bundy and Helen Guyatt here report on the workshop, which had three major conclusions: (1) the school-age children of developing countries face health problems that remain neglected and poorly understood; (2) an important research need is to develop simpler means of monitoring the health status of school-age children and evaluating the impact of public health interventions in this age group; and (3) two strategies are available to address this public health problem. The first is to develop further and test programmes that appear, from available evidence and pilot studies, to offer effective means of improving the health of this age group at reasonable cost, and to be sustainable; and the second is, over a longer term, to develop the capacity within countries to assess the health problems of school-age children and devise cost-effective strategies to address these problems. This report attempts, in brief form, to survey what is known about the health status of school-age children, to discuss the possible benefits to health and learning that accrue from health interventions, and to suggest some avenues currently available for both research and application.     

武陵山区苗族儿童少年体质发育

为了探讨武陵山区苗族儿童少年体质发育特征及其规律。本文采用人体测量学的方法 , 对武陵山区苗族儿童少年17项体质发育指标进行测量, 计算11项体质指数。结果表明: 1)苗族儿童少年生长发育的各项指标均值随年龄的增长而增加; 2)苗族男女性的生长发育曲线呈上升趋势并且有交叉现象; 3)苗族男性的身高突增年龄为12-14岁, 女性则为11-13岁; 4)苗族学生的身高均值低于同龄其他民族学生; 5)苗族学生的体质指数年龄变化规律与其他民族基本相似, 但身体各部分的发育程度不相同; 6)苗族学生的维尔维克指数均值高于同龄马山壮族学生。研究显示苗族儿童少年体质发育符合一般生长发育规律, 并有性别差异, 苗族男女生的体质发育相对落后于汉族等其他民族。     

Age-specific variation in the secular trend for stature: A comparison of samples from industrialized and nonindustrialized regions

Age-specific secular trend patterns for children in industrialized world regions have a regular pattern, beginning low at age 6 and increasing to a maximum at age 10 to 14, then declining. While magnitude differs, the patterns are ordinarily parallel, especially in the female samples. However, age-specific secular trend values for children from developing regions, or from areas of industrialized countries not benefitting substantially from development, are irregular in pattern and magnitude. Consequently, it is difficult to predict age at maximal secular change. We suggest that fluctuating environmental circumstances in these developing countries influence growth and, hence, the pattern of secular trend. As more stable environmental conditions relating to growth are present in the industrialized countries, this leads to more stable patterns of growth and age-specific patterns of secular change.     

裕固族4～13岁儿童身高、体重状况调查分析

了解裕固族4～13岁儿童身高、体重发育现状,分析该儿童4～7岁组及7～13岁组生长发育随年龄的变化关系, 为儿童保健工作提供参考依据和合理化建议。采用随机整群抽样的方法抽取484名儿童, 测量身高和体重。以全国身高体重值为参比值, 计算年龄别身高(HAZ)和年龄别体重(WAZ)值评价4～7岁儿童体格生长迟缓和低体重状况; 身体质量指数(BMI)评价7～13岁儿童超重和消瘦情况。结果显示, 调查对象身高均高于对比值, 4～7岁儿童超重检出率为3.45%, 偏瘦检出率2.30%; 7～13岁裕固族儿童营养不良人数占裕固族儿童总人数的36.90%, 严重消瘦的人数占13.10%, 其中女生的消瘦程度较男生差。所以, 儿童身高、体重生长发育符合一般生长规律。7～13岁裕固族男女生身体偏瘦人数较多的问题值得关注, 建议改善该人群营养膳食, 加强各项体育锻炼。     

Increasing human tooth length between birth and 5.4 years

Most previous studies of tooth development have used fractional stages of tooth formation to construct growth standards suitable for aging juvenile skeletal material. A simple alternative for determining dental age is to measure tooth length throughout development. In this study, data on tooth length development are presented from 63 individuals of known age at death, between birth and 5.4 years, from an archeological population recovered from the crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. Isolated developing teeth (304 deciduous, 269 permanent) were measured in millimeters and plotted against individual age. Regression equations to estimate age from a given tooth length, are presented for each deciduous maxillary and mandibular tooth type and for permanent maxillary and mandibular incisors, canines, and first permanent molars. Data on the earliest age of root completion of deciduous teeth and initial mineralization and crown completion of some permanent teeth in this sample are given, as well as the average crown height and total tooth length from a small number of unworn teeth. This method provides an easy, quantitative and objective measure of dental formation appropriate for use by archeologists and anthropologists. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Update on the Mapping of Prevalence and Intensity of Infection for Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Call for Action

It is estimated that in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at least 13.9 million preschool age and 35.4 million school age children are at risk of infections by soil-transmitted helminths (STH): Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale). Although infections caused by this group of parasites are associated with chronic deleterious effects on nutrition and growth, iron and vitamin A status and cognitive development in children, few countries in the LAC Region have implemented nationwide surveys on prevalence and intensity of infection. The aim of this study was to identify gaps on the mapping of prevalence and intensity of STH infections based on data published between 2000 and 2010 in LAC, and to call for including mapping as part of action plans against these infections. A total of 335 published data points for STH prevalence were found for 18 countries (11.9% data points for preschool age children, 56.7% for school age children and 31.3% for children from 1 to 14 years of age). We found that 62.7% of data points showed prevalence levels above 20%. Data on the intensity of infection were found for seven countries. The analysis also highlights that there is still an important lack of data on prevalence and intensity of infection to determine the burden of disease based on epidemiological surveys, particularly among preschool age children. This situation is a challenge for LAC given that adequate planning of interventions such as deworming requires information on prevalence to determine the frequency of needed anthelmintic drug administration and to conduct monitoring and evaluation of progress in drug coverage.     

Body Mass Index Development from Birth to Early Adolescence; Effect of Perinatal Characteristics and Maternal Migration Background in a Swedish Cohort

Background

Well documented diversity in risk of developing overweight and obesity between children of immigrant and of native mothers, might be explained by different body mass index (BMI) development trajectories in relation to maternal and perinatal characteristics of offspring.

Objectives

To assess BMI development trajectories among children born to immigrant and to Swedish mothers from birth to adolescence in relation to perinatal characteristics.

Methods

A cohort of 2517 children born in Stockholm during 1994 to 1996 was followed with repeated measurement of height and weight at eleven time points until age 12 years. We estimated changes over time for BMI in relation to maternal and perinatal characteristics of offspring using mixed linear model analysis for repeated measure data.

Results

We observed a significant BMI change over time in children and time interaction with maternal migration status (P<0.0001). Estimated BMI over time adjusted for maternal and perinatal characteristics of offspring, showed slower BMI growth before age of 5, followed by an earlier plateau and steeper BMI growth after 5 years among children of immigrant mothers compared with children of Swedish mothers. These differences in BMI growth were more prominent among children with mothers from outside Europe.

Conclusion

Beside reinforcing early childhood as a crucial period in development of overweight, the observed slower BMI development at early childhood among children of immigrants followed by a steeper increase in BMI compared with children of Swedish mothers is important for further studies and for planning of preventive public health programs.     

Growth and development in school-age children from Rostov region,Russia: Comparison between urban and rural settings

The purposes of the current study were: (1) to describe growth and physical development and establish norms for schoolchildren from Rostov region in Russia; (2) to compare major characteristics of development between urban and rural children by sex and age.Nearly 200,000 children (198,712) aged between 7 and 17 years from 232 urban and rural schools of Rostov region (Southern Federal District of Russia) participated in the study. School age is a period of intensive growth and physiological and psychological development. Irregularities of personal development are caused by a multitude of factors, such as sex differences, heredity, socio-economic status of a family, standard of living, particular environmental conditions, and lifestyle.It has been established that children from the Southern Federal District of Russia had body mass index values higher than age-appropriate norms for all Russians (Total Russian, Rudnev et al., 2014) and World Health Organization charts. Children from urban settings were taller and heavier than children from rural settings.Sex is one of the most influential factors which play key role in determining specific characteristics of growth and personal development. According to our results, boys and girls both had similar age-related changes in weight and height, but their respective dynamics differed. Girls’ height and weight values accelerated at the age 10 to 12 years and plateaued after the age fourteen, whereas in boys height and weight steadily increased with age, showing slight acceleration at the age 12 to 13 years, and reached a plateau by the age of seventeen.     

Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity: Forty Years of Evidence

The international industrial ecology (IE) research community and United Nations (UN) Environment have, for the first time, agreed on an authoritative and comprehensive data set for global material extraction and trade covering 40 years of global economic activity and natural resource use. This new data set is becoming the standard information source for decision making at the UN in the context of the post‐2015 development agenda, which acknowledges the strong links between sustainable natural resource management, economic prosperity, and human well‐being. Only if economic growth and human development can become substantially decoupled from accelerating material use, waste, and emissions can the tensions inherent in the Sustainable Development Goals be resolved and inclusive human development be achieved. In this paper, we summarize the key findings of the assessment study to make the IE research community aware of this new global research resource. The global results show a massive increase in materials extraction from 22 billion tonnes (Bt) in 1970 to 70 Bt in 2010, and an acceleration in material extraction since 2000. This acceleration has occurred at a time when global population growth has slowed and global economic growth has stalled. The global surge in material extraction has been driven by growing wealth and consumption and accelerating trade. A material footprint perspective shows that demand for materials has grown even in the wealthiest parts of the world. Low‐income countries have benefited least from growing global resource availability and have continued to deliver primary materials to high‐income countries while experiencing few improvements in their domestic material living standards. Material efficiency, the amount of primary materials required per unit of economic activity, has declined since around 2000 because of a shift of global production from very material‐efficient economies to less‐efficient ones. This global trend of recoupling economic activity with material use, driven by industrialization and urbanization in the global South, most notably Asia, has negative impacts on a suite of environmental and social issues, including natural resource depletion, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and uneven economic development. This research is a good example of the IE research community providing information for evidence‐based policy making on the global stage and testament to the growing importance of IE research in achieving global sustainable development.     

Estimating the distribution of probable age-at-death from dental remains of immature human fossils

In two historic longitudinal growth studies, Moorrees et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol 21 (1963) 99-108; J Dent Res 42 (1963) 1490-1502) presented the "mean attainment age" for stages of tooth development for 10 permanent tooth types and three deciduous tooth types. These findings were presented graphically to assess the rate of tooth formation in living children and to age immature skeletal remains. Despite being widely cited, these graphical data are difficult to implement because there are no accompanying numerical values for the parameters underlying the growth data. This analysis generates numerical parameters from the data reported by Moorrees et al. by digitizing 358 points from these tooth formation graphs using DataThief III, version 1.5. Following the original methods, the digitized points for each age transition were conception-corrected and converted to the logarithmic scale to determine a median attainment age for each dental formation stage. These values are subsequently used to estimate age-at-death distributions for immature individuals using a single tooth or multiple teeth, including estimates for 41 immature early modern humans and 25 immature Neandertals. Within-tooth variance is calculated for each age estimate based on a single tooth, and a between-tooth component of variance is calculated for age estimates based on two or more teeth to account for the increase in precision that comes from using additional teeth. Finally, we calculate the relative probability of observing a particular dental formation sequence given known-age reference information and demonstrate its value in estimating age for immature fossil specimens.     

Monitoring the growth dynamics of somatic traits based on a semi-longitudinal study

Possibilities of conducting longitudinal human growth studies are very limited, since it is necessary to monitor the probands for a long time. Another problem can be a loss of data currency, and the small size of the final sample. The solution can be a follow-up semi-longitudinal observation. This research is drawn up as a short longitudinal monitoring of 1925 children (990 boys, 935 girls), aged 6-15 years, at 20 elementary schools in four regions of the Czech Republic, which has been conducted at the same time.Data of repeatedly examined probands of a wide age range were acquired in a short time period. With the help of a linear regression model with mixed effect, the growth velocity curves of 12 somatic traits have been obtained. The timing, intensity and duration of separate growth spurts have been observed, as well as the mutual location of both points of growth velocity, local maxima and minima, and points of the maximal acceleration and deceleration.The results demonstrate that the velocity of characters with variable growth dynamics (skin-fold thicknesses, circumferences of limbs) - contrary to characters with regular growth velocity - have a higher number of partial growth spurts and an opposite course. In the period of separate growth velocity, peaks of somatic characters with regular growth dynamics reach points of partial local minima. In comparison to previous longitudinal studies of body height growth dynamics, the shift of both the beginning and the peak of boys’ and girls’ pubertal spurt, to a lower age can be found.     

中枢性性早熟对儿童生长发育的影响及其危险因素分析

摘要 目的：分析中枢性性早熟对儿童生长发育的影响及其危险因素。方法：选择我院自2020年1月至2023年1月收治的105例中枢性性早熟患儿作为观察组,另选同期的105例发育正常儿童作为对照组,比较两组生长发育指标、血清胰岛素样生长因子-1（IGF-1）、胰岛素样生长因子结合蛋白3（IGF-BP3）表达水平,对入组者膳食模式、生活情况、家庭状况进行问卷调查,使用单因素分析和多因素Logistic回归分析。结果：观察组身高、体重、身体质量指数、骨龄均大于对照组（P＜0.05）;观察组血清IGF-1、IGF-BP3表达水平均高于对照组（P＜0.05）;经单因素分析,午睡习惯、运动时间、亮灯睡觉、课业负担、经常使用塑料制品、成人洗漱护肤品、观看情感类电视、母亲学历、职业、初潮年龄,父母关系、陪伴、平衡膳食模式、高热量高脂膳食模式均与中枢性性早熟有关（P＜0.05）;经多因素Logistic回归分析,平衡膳食模式、有午睡习惯、运动时间长均是中枢性性早熟的保护因素（P＜0.05）,高热量高脂膳食模式、母亲初潮年龄小、父母关系不和睦、父母陪伴少均是中枢性性早熟的危险因素（P＜0.05）。结论：中枢性性早熟可影响儿童的生长发育进度,与高热量高脂膳食模式、母亲初潮年龄、父母关系和陪伴密切相关,应改善家庭关系,帮助儿童养成平衡膳食、午睡和运动的良好习惯,有益于儿童正常的生长发育。     

Longitudinal analysis of adolescent growth of ladino and Mayan school children in Guatemala: effects of environment and sex.

The rate of growth in height and the timing of adolescent growth events are analyzed for two samples of Guatemalan children. One sample includes Mayan school children, 33 boys and 12 girls between the ages of 5.00 to 17.99 years, living under poor conditions for growth and development. The second sample includes ladino children, 78 boys and 85 girls of the same age range, living under favorable conditions for growth. The Preece-Baines model I function is used to estimate mean values for rates and timing of childhood and adolescent growth events for the two groups. Significant statistical contrasts (t-tests) of these means show Mayan boys reach the age of "take-off" (TO; the onset of the adolescent growth spurt) 1.45 years later, achieve peak height velocity (PHV) 1.68 years later, and continue growing for about 2.0 years longer than do the ladino boys. Despite the Mayan boys' increased duration for growth they grow significantly more slowly than the ladinos. Mayan boys are 6.60 cm shorter than ladinos at the age of TO and are estimated to be 7.71 cm shorter than the ladinos at adulthood. Mayan girls reach the age of TO 0.93 years later than do the ladina girls, but the two groups do not differ in the age at PHV or the age at adulthood. The mean height of Mayan girls is significantly less than that of ladinas at the age of TO (6.5 cm), and this difference increases to an estimated 11.14 cm at adulthood. Possible causes of these ethnic and sex-related differences in amounts and rates of growth are discussed in relation to hypotheses about the genetic and environmental determinants of human development.     

Growth patterns and final height in congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to classical 21-hydroxylase deficiency. Results of a multicenter study

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal growth and bone age (BA) development are the most important clinical parameters for monitoring adequate glucocorticoid replacement in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). AIM OF THE STUDY: To analyze the growth pattern of patients treated for CAH of the salt wasting (SW) and simple virilizing (SV) clinical forms; to evaluate final height as compared to reference data and individual target height; to evaluate the course of BA development. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A large database of 598 patients with CAH was created in 5 Central European countries and growth data of 341 treated patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were of Caucasian origin. Centiles were constructed in a cross-sectional manner and an additional longitudinal analysis was performed in order to evaluate the pubertal growth spurt by applying particular statistical methods (Preece-Baines model). RESULTS: The growth of SW CAH patients was impaired in infancy and early childhood (0-3 years of age), but followed normal patterns in childhood until puberty. In contrast, children with SV CAH had normal patterns of growth in infancy and early childhood and were considerably taller than healthy references during childhood. In the longitudinal study, peak height velocity in both boys and girls was normal, but it occurred at an earlier age than in the standard population. The final height of patients with CAH was reduced in comparison to both the reference and the individual target height. No correlations were found between final height and age at the start of the therapy in SV patients or between final height and year of birth. BA was advanced in both types of CAH, but more accelerated in SV patients. CONCLUSION: Characteristic growth patterns for treated SV and SW CAH children were identified, with a normal pubertal growth spurt and reduced final height being observed.     

Growth patterns among seminomadic pastoralists (Datoga) of Tanzania

Anthropometric measurements made on 470 individual children (age 0–18 years) from a seminomadic population of Datoga pastoralists living in northern Tanzania were used to describe patterns of child growth. Comparisons with reference growth curves derived from American samples suggest that pastoral Datoga children grow poorly in this region. Body compositional changes with age differed markedly from the reference population. There were negligible fat gains through childhood, even among females. Comparison with data on other East African pastoralists showed that population growth performance is intermediate between that of nomadic and settled pastoralists. Little catch-up growth occurs during childhood, and adolescence appears to be delayed among males. The results contribute to the growing database on health indicators for African pastoralists and suggest a need for further research to investigate mechanisms for growth stunting in these populations. Am J Phys Anthropol 109:187–209, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Early childhood development project in Uganda as a strategy for reducing children's poor growth indicators: an explanatory study

This study shall explore the activities of the Uganda nutrition and early childhood development project using explanatory program effects, qualitative research methods to determine the role/interplay of project factors and community dynamics in relation to poor growth and social indicators in Ugandan children. This project aimed to improve the quality of life for children age less than 6 years by improving their nutrition, health, cognitive and psychosocial development. The key concern remains how successful and sustainable are the outcomes? Data shall be collected using interviews, focus groups and document reviews. Data analysis shall employ the thematic networks analytical tool, which is aided by the ATLAS.ti software. The key hypotheses and recommendations from the analysis shall then be tested in a suitable community location and period in line with the research questions.