Modern view on the problem of children and adolescents physical development assesment

Abstract

The aim of work was to compile information on current international approaches to children and adolescents physical development assessment. Physical development is an important health indicator of children and adolescents, which reflects individual sexual and constitutional features, different climatic and socio-economic living conditions. Currently different of methods are used to assess children physical development. In 2006, the World Health Organization introduced a reference growth rates of children under 5 years («Child Growth Standards for children»), which show how children should grow while ensuring proper care, feeding and healthy environment. These standards make it possible to assess the physical development of children all over the world, regardless of ethnicity, feeding type and socioeconomic status. «WHO Growth Reference 2007» standards are developed for children from 5 to 19 years. It is recommended to evaluate nutritional status from 2 years of age by calculating the body mass index standard deviation score (SDS) on the standard for the corresponding age and sex. The program for personal computers «WHO Anthro» was developed for individual assessment of children under 5 years anthropometric indicators using both parametric (sigma - Z-score determination) and nonparametric (centile - percentile determination) methods, and the program «WHO AnthroPLUS» - for children and adolescents over 5 years. The programs allow to asses physical development easily and conveniently in practical application and to visualize the results. The World Health Organization international reference standards allow to evaluate physical development pathology, including nutritional status, according to international criteria for malnutrition, overweight and obesity, short and tall stature diagnosis. Adoption of the World Health Organization standards unifies the methodology for assessing the children and adolescents physical development, will make comparable the results obtained at different time, in different countries and regions of the world.