Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the secular changes in the body height, weight, chest and head circumferences in preschool children (3-6 years) from the Smolyan region, Bulgaria, during the past 20 years. Material and methods. A transversal anthropometric study of 330 clinically healthy children, aged between 3 to 6 years from Smolyan region, Bulgaria, was performed in the period 2017-2019 (Sample B). For the aims of the analysis, earlier anthropometric data, collected by the author for 406 preschool children from the Smolyan region, aged between 3-6 years, transversally studied in the period 1996-1998 (Sample A) were also used. The height, weight, chest and head circumference have been measured for each child, as per Martin-Saller's methods. The data have been processed through the statistical package Statistica 12.0 by using analysis of variance. The Student's T-test was used a check the significance. Results. Our results show the significant increase of height and weight of boys at the age of 3 and 5 years and the weight of girls at the age of 3 and 6 years. A statistically reliable reduction in the chest and head circumferences among boys at the age of 6 years. On the grounds of these negative secular changes, the modern girls at the age of 3 years have a reliably larger chest and head circumference in comparison to their peers 20 years ago. At the same time the girls at the age of 5 years are with chest circumference, which is almost 2 cm smaller in comparison to their peers. Conclusions. Our results once again show the multidimentional character of the secular changes, which are presented, to various extents, in the various morphological systems of the body during the different stages of the ontogenesis and are different for the two genders.
Publisher
Peytchinski Publishing Ltd.