Functional development of schoolchildren of the Russian Federation in the postpandemic period

ˑ: 

Levushkin S.P.
Institute of Child Development, Health and Adaptation, Moscow;

Sechin D.I.
Institute of Child Development, Health and Adaptation, Moscow;

Markelova S.V.
N.I. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow;

Fedotov D.M.
Ministry of Health of the Kamchatka Territory, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Objective of the study: To identify the delayed effects of restrictive measures caused by COVID-19 on the physical and functional development of the child population of the Russian Federation.

Methods and structure of the study: The scientific work examined the somatometric and physiometric indicators of physical development of 3756 primary school children aged 7-11 years, including 1945 boys and 1811 girls. The study participants lived in different regions of the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation. The study was approved by the LEC, fully complied with the rules of medical ethics and the principles of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out using the Statistica 13.0 software package.

Results and conclusions: A comparative analysis of the state of skeletal muscle development in the studied groups (using the right shoulder excursion as an example) and hand dynamometry did not reveal any statistically significant differences. Thus, the right shoulder excursion in the group of 7-year-old boys in 2021 was 1.14±0.10 cm, and in 2024 — 1.56±0.51 cm (p=0.08), in the group of 7-year-old girls — 1.17±0.17 cm in 2021, 1.33±0.10 cm in 2024 (p=0.43). The dynamometry indicators of the right hand were in the group of 7-year-old boys the value of this indicator in 2021 was 10.36 ± 0.36 kg, and in 2024 — 9.71 ± 0.69 kg (p=0.40), in the group of 7-year-old girls — 8.43 ± 0.32 kg in 2021, 8.69 ± 0.42 kg in 2024 (p=0.62). The results of the study demonstrated the absence of a significant negative trend in the impact of restrictive measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of the younger generation. At the same time, it is necessary to continue conducting detailed studies of the long-term consequences of the pandemic.

Keywords: primary school students, physical development, COVID-19.

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