Changes in Morphological Characteristics During the Period 2005 ­ 2014 in a Sample of Serbian 7 - Year-Old Children

Abstract

Morphological characteristics of children commonly imply the processes of growth and development. Information on children's growth in height and their body weight is often used as the indicator of the children's health and nutritional status. As the parameters are changeable both temporally and spatially, it is important to provide their continual assessment. The aim of the study is to investigate the changes in morphological characteristics in a sample of Serbian 7-year-old children in the period 2005-2014. The data was gathered from medical documentation recorded in the period 2005-2014 in the local health-care centre "Dr Dusan Savic-Doda" in Beocin, which is situated in the central part of the province Vojvodina, the northwest part of Serbia. Most of the population consists of Serbs (69.7 %), and the second largest group are Roma (9 %) who came to this region in the 1990s as refugees from Kosovo. The categorization of the participants was based on their decimal age ranging from 6.50 to 7.49 years. Body height and weight were measured, and nutritional status categories were set in relation to the cut off values of body mass index (BMI) of the age of 7 (kg/m 2) as proposed by IOTF-International Obesity Task Force. The study has pointed to an increasing trend in height and a decrease of BMI. Analysing the period of ten years, the height, weight and BMI in seven-year-olds living on the territory on Beocin municipality have proven to be slightly lower than in the children of the same age in other parts of Vojvodina and Serbia. The obtained results point to the need of further investigations of children living in this region in order to provide a better insight into the changes of the morphological parameters.

Infant Feeding Choices during the First Post-Natal Months and Anthropometry at Age Seven Years: Follow-Up of a Randomized Clinical Trial

“…Among 1134 children (age 7–12 years) studied in 2012, 18.9% were overweight, which is very similar to our observed overweight rate of 16% [ 23 ]. From 2010 to 2014, the heights and weights of Serbian school children ( n = 671) were reported to be somewhat lower than in our cohort, with 15.3 kg/m 2 being the average BMI for boys, similar to our observation, while for girls, they reported 14.7 kg/m 2 , which was slightly lower than our observation of 15.8 ± 2.3 kg/m 2 [ 24 ]. Although the body fat percentage calculated from skinfolds was somewhat higher than that observed in the CHOP study in 6-year-old children (girls 16.4 ± 4.6%, boys 14.8 ± 5.1%), findings agreed that there were no significant differences between study groups, while values were significantly higher for girls than for boys [ 25 ].…”

Secular Change in Body Size and Somatotype of Indonesian Children aged 7–15 Years (1999–2019)

“…One study conducted by Fu et al [11] showed that there are positive secular trends in height which is higher during the onset of puberty and then dramatically decreased during the middle and end of puberty (after age 12 years). A number of studies have also analyzed the trends in height at certain ages [8], [11], [12], [19], [20], [21], [22]. Compared with boys and girls of our study in the same age indicated a lower average height of our samples than those of previous studies, as well as when compared to Turkish children aged 6-17 years [23] and Italian children aged 9-10 years [24].…”

Trend Change in the Morphological Features of Boys Aged Seven to Ten

“…The aforementioned method is used to establish the nutritional status of children and adolescents, which represents one of the most important indicators of health, psychophysical abilities and the potential for normal growth and development (Stamenkovič, Bratić, Berić, & Pantelić, 2017). Thus, it can function as a prognostic factor of their state of health (Marković, Igrutinović, Kostić, & Vuletić, 2008;Pavlica, Rakić, & Sironjić, 2017). Any greater deviations from optimal body mass values are indicators of symptoms of a health disorder, or indicators of a preexisting condition (Vlaški & Katanić, 2010).…”