Specific Features of the Development of School-Aged Children Living in a High-Mountain Region in the Kyrgyz Republic

Abstract

The study included 10,480 urban and rural schoolchildren aged 7-17 years, born in the high-mountain area of the Naryn oblast of the Kyrgyz Republic, located at more than 2500 m above sea level. Statistical parameters of body length and weight, chest circumference were studied. The greatest increment in the body length in urban boys falls to 14 years (rate of increase 5.69%), and that for rural boys - to 13 years of age (rate of increase 5.18%), the annual increase in the body length in urban and rural schoolgirls is lower than the average increase in boys by 31% and 16 % respectively. The greatest gender differences between boys and girls are found at the age of 12 years, after which the rate of longitudinal growth of girls decreases. In boys, increments in longitudinal height sharply rise at the age of 14 years. Average arithmetic indices of body length and weight of schoolchildren in Bishkek (2013) are significantly higher in all age groups as compared to the body length and weight of schoolchildren in the city of Naryn.