Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin

Diversity of main anthropometric traits of infants and early age children in connection with anthropogenic factors

Gorbacheva A.K., Fedotova T.K.

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Moscow

Gorbacheva Anna K.: e-mail: angoria@yandex.ru; Fedotova Tatiana K.: e-mail: tatiana.fedotova@mail.ru.

Abstract

Introduction. The goal of this study is to estimate the impact of anthropogenic factors on the variability of the main anthropometric indices of children at the beginning of ontogenesis (aged 12–36 months). Materials and methods. The subject of the study is children aged 12 months, 2 years and 3 years from urban and rural areas of Russia, 40 samples in each year cut. The object of study is associations of main somatic indices of children – body length as the marker of skeletal development, body mass as the integrative marker of metabolism, head and chest circumferences as the marker of development’ proportionality – with the pool of anthropogenic factors, e.g. anthropogenic misbalance of ecosystems, medical and ecological type of the region, quantity, density and income of population, concord of social structure, technogenic pollution of water and air, frequency of cardio-vascular diseases and child oncology. Scattering diagrams were used to estimate the level of anthropometric-ecological correlations. Results. No linear increase of somatic-anthropogenic associations was found in the age interval 12–36 months. The increase of anthropometric indices of 2-year old children is associated with the increase of the level of such factors as quantity, density, and income of the population, describing the increase of sizes of urban agglomerations. The factor of anthropogenic misbalance of ecosystems is connected with the decrease of anthropometric indices of 1-year-old children. Conclusion. The number of correlations between anthropometric indices and anthropogenic factors in not huge due to the number of facts, such as compensatory growth at the beginning of the ontogenesis, a search of an individual growth curve, a slow gain of emancipation from maternal factors, lack of distinct direction of intergroup differences. The age interval from 12 to 36 months of postnatal development seems to be not informative enough to study the processes of adaptation of child organism to the environment.

Keywords

body length and mass; medical and ecological type of the region; anthropogenic factors; technogenic pollution of water and air; density and income of population; scattering diagrams

DOI: 10.32521/2074-8132.2018.1.018-036

Цит.: Gorbacheva A.K., Fedotova T.K. Diversity of main anthropometric traits of infants and early age children in connection with anthropogenic factors // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2018; 1/2018; с. 18-36

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