Characteristics of physical development of school-age children affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine

Abstract

Objective — to determine characteristics of disorders in physical development (PD) of school-age children affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.Materials and methods. We assessed the nature of PD of children and adolescents aged 6—18 years (179 girls and 128 boys) and affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, who had applied to the State institution «Institute for Children and Adolescents Health Care of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» for medical help in 2015—2018. Taking into account age and stage of sexual development as of the beginning of Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), the following groups were formed: childhood (6—8 years); prepuberty (9—10 years); early puberty (11—13 years); puberty itself (14—16 years); late puberty (17—18 years). Software packages «SPSS Statistics 17.0» and «Excel» were used for mathematical processing of received results.Results and discussion. We established causality between nature of PD, sex and age as of the beginning of the armed conflict (April 2014). In remote catamnesis we identified disharmonious PD the most frequently in children, who in 2014 had been less than 7 years old (66.7 %), by low height in boys and by excess weight in girls. In contrast, in boys, who in 2014 had been 9—10 years old, we identified excess body weight twice as frequently as in girls of the same age (42.9 % and 27.6 %, respectively). This age group is the one in dynamics of monitoring of which we diagnosed complicated progression of obesity. It was determined that excess weight had been the most frequent form of PD disorder in adolescents of both sexes. Body mass deficiency was identified much less frequently, mostly in boys, who in 2014 had been 11–13 years old (14.6 %).Conclusions. The risk group for PD disorders is schoolchildren affected by the armed conflict at younger age and at the onset of puberty, in whose pathology structure excess body mass had been prevalent.