REGULARITIES IN DISEASES OF THE MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM DEVELOPING IN SCHOOLCHILDREN UNDER COMPLEX EXPOSURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND FACTORS RELATED TO LIFESTYLE

Abstract

The present research is vital due to diseases of the musculoskeletal system being widely spread and having great social significance as well as a variety of etiological factors that cause this pathology among schoolchildren. Overall, 339 school- children were examined; they attended secondary schools located on territories with different sanitary-hygienic conditions regarding ambient air. Hygienic, clinical-laboratory and instrumental procedures as well as mathematical data processing were applied to fulfill the research tasks. Average daily consumption of food products was estimated as per “Dairies of a weekly schoolchildren’s ration”; specific factors related to lifestyle were estimated via questioning performed with a specifi- cally designed authors’ questionnaire. Children who attended a secondary school in a city where metallic construction mate- rials were manufactured had manganese concentrations in their blood that were by 8–9 % higher than among their counter- parts from the reference group; lead concentrations in their blood were by 1.9–2.2 times higher than in the reference group and by up to 1.7 times higher than background levels. Priority factors that produce such negative effects on health as dis- eases of the musculoskeletal system include the following: school subjects with the same complexity do not interchange with simpler ones in schedules; breaks between classes do not conform to hygienic regulations; food rations are imbalanced as per milk products and eggs; physical training and doing sports are irregular; homework takes longer period of times than before. Average ionized calcium contents in blood of children from the test group were by 9.0–14.0 % lower and hydrocorti- sone contents were by 1.3–1.5 times higher than in the reference group (р=0.0001–0.01). Lower mineral density of bone tissues was by 1.6 times more frequent among children from the test group (р=0.04). Diseases of the musculoskeletal system were 4.6–15 times more probable and scoliosis was 8–11 times more probable due to persistent exposure to manganese and lead, violated hygienic principles of education process organization and food rations, and low physical activity of school- children. Changes in bone metabolism, activation of a stress-releasing system, and a decrease in bone mass are basic etiopa- thogenetic regularities in developing chronic pathology of the musculoskeletal system among schoolchildren associated with exposure to specific environmental factors and factors related to lifestyle.