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5. SECULAR PATTERNS OF GROWTH PROCESSES IN MODERN MOSCOW INFANTS COMPARED TO THE INFANTS OF THE 1970’S

SECULAR PATTERNS OF GROWTH PROCESSES IN MODERN MOSCOW INFANTS COMPARED TO THE INFANTS OF THE 1970’S

Fedotova Tatiana, Gorbacheva Anna, Sukhova Alla

Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Fedotova Tatiana, e-mail: tatiana.fedotova@mail.ru; Gorbacheva Anna, e-mail: angoria@yandex.ru; Sukhova Alla, e-mail: alla-sukhova@bk.ru.

Abstract

The dynamics of the body dimensions (body length and mass, chest circumference) of Moscow infants of 2000’s from birth to 12 months compared to that of infants of 1970’s is observed. Modern data were collected by the authors on the basis of child outpatient clinics from medical cards, following ethic norms. A longitudinal sample of about 500 children was formed, including monthly dynamics of physical development indices accompanied by the full medical background. Archive data of 1970’s was collected in the course of a cross-sectional anthropometric study. The comparison of dynamic curves, preliminary standardized, of body length of boys and girls describes the process of secular increase of modern infants length, more expressed in the second half of the first year of life and increasing towards the age of 12 months. The level of differences is 0.4–1.0 and 0.4–1.4 SD for boys and girls correspondingly. The comparison of dynamic curves of body mass and chest circumference describes the opposite tendency of some decrease of the dimensions of modern children from birth to 6 months from the level of 0.6 SD to zero. Secular increase of length combined with the decrease of mass and chest circumference means that the process of lepthosomization of body build in modern infants is growing as compared to the second part of the 20th century. The absence of the distinct secular differences of the length growth curves through the first 6 months of a child’s life is connected with the intensive compensatory growth, which smooths the limitations of the prenatal growth in search of the stable growth curve.

Keywords

physical development indices, growth curves, infants, secular trends

Цит.: Fedotova Tatiana, Gorbacheva Anna, Sukhova Alla SECULAR PATTERNS OF GROWTH PROCESSES IN MODERN MOSCOW INFANTS COMPARED TO THE INFANTS OF THE 1970’S // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 3/2014; с. 51-51