Dynamics of indicators characterizing the health of children in the territory of military conflict. The impact of rehabilitation measures: cohort study

Abstract

Background. There are still understudied issues concerning the health indicators of children who are in conditions of conducting warfare in primary school age. Objective. The aim of the study is to evaluate comprehensive rehabilitation measures to optimize health indicators (physical, functional and mental capacity parameters) of primary school children in conditions of military conflict.Methods. An examination of 419 elementary school children was conducted in the period from March 2022 to September 2022 including. The main group: 128 children, who lived in the territory of military operations. Control group: 291 children who lived peaceful territories. The indicators (body mass index, Robinson index, vital index, strength index, V.A. Shapovalova power index and mental capacity of children according to the results of V.Ya. Anfimov correction task) were compared before the start of the developed comprehensive rehabilitation program and 6 months after the start of its implementation.Results. It was found that all elementary school children who lived in locations of military conflict had a decrease in physical and functional parameters of varying degrees of severity, as well as indicators of mental capacity. The comprehensive rehabilitation program promoted to the normalization of the studied indicators in evacuated (57/86, 56%) children in comparison with children who remained in the locations of military operations (43/70, 49%). The studied indicators had the highest recovery rates at the age of 7-8 years. The most vulnerable was a subgroup of 9-10 years old boys who permanently living in conditions of conducting warfare. The development and implementation of the comprehensive integration program using individual rehabilitation routes had an optimizing effect on the studied indicators of physical and functional conditions, as well as cognitive performance in 101 children of the main subgroups, which amounted to 78.9%.Conclusion. Under the influence of the comprehensive integration rehabilitation program, optimization of health indicators was observed in children living in locations of conducting warfare. The most pronounced effect was observed in children who left the territories of shelling as a result of evacuation to Rostov-on-Don.