Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Sukhova Alla, e-mail: alla-sukhova@bk.ru; Fedotova Tatiana, e-mail: tatiana.fedotova@mail.ru; Gorbacheva Anna, e-mail: angoria@yandex.ru.
To estimate the specificity of growth dynamics of Slavonic children from birth to 2 years in different ecological conditions, data on physical development of children of the former USSR from late 1960’s – early 1970’s were compiled. Among them, samples from the following regions: megalopolis of Moscow; sea port of Murmansk, settled over the polar circle in the permafrost zone; city of Norilsk, settled over the polar circle, one of the most polluted cities in the world; city of Magadan, settled in the permafrost zone, severe climate with short summer; industrial center of Cheliabinsk, air pollution over the norm and high radiation background; industrial center of Kuibishev, the highest level of the air pollution in Russia; industrial agglomeration of Donetsk, a zone of ecological disaster with the extreme exhaustion of natural resources. Growth patterns of four main indices of physical development (body length and mass, chest and head circumferences) were compared at different age groups: at birth, 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. The highest indicators of physical development and the rate of their changes through 0-2 years interval belong to the children from rapidly developing urban centers with intensive migration processes – Moscow, Murmansk, Kuibishev. Evidently, high level of urbanization is positively correlated with the high level of medical service. Children growing in the severe conditions of the North, in Norilsk and Magadan, have lower indices of physical development and lower rates of their dynamics. The combination of natural and anthropogenic stress in the ecology of Norilsk intensifies this tendency. Children of Cheliabinsk, living in the conditions of the high anthropogenic pollution, are characterized with the deficit of body mass and chest circumference through the second year of life, which is an evidence of asthenization of body shape, more evident in girls. The same tendency characterizes the growth of children from urban Donetsk. The lowest indices of children from Donetsk region are probably connected not only with the high level of technogenic stress, but also with the lower quality of life in this province, which includes nutrition status and medical service. The retardation of the girls from Donetsk and the region compared to the boys who assume to be more ecosensitive, may testify to the distress of the ecological situation in the region and to the extreme exhaustion of adaptive resources of the child’s organism. The research is partly maintained by RFBR grant # 12-06-0036a.
growth dynamics, physical development, infancy, early childhood, ecological stress
Цит.: Sukhova Alla, Fedotova Tatiana, Gorbacheva Anna GROWTH FROM BIRTH TO TWO YEARS: ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 3/2014; с. 62-62
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