PhD, Associate Professor I.N. Bakay¹
PhD, Associate Professor N.P. Konstantinova¹
PhD, Associate Professor V.P. Kartashev¹
PhD, Associate Professor N.V. Karpova^1
1Russian State Social University, Moscow

Corresponding author: irinasyazina@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to test and analyze mental and physical health of the 5-6 year-olds diagnosed with digestive system dysfunctions.

Methods and structure of the study. We run the study at Combined Preschool Establishment No. 809, Rehabilitative Preschool Establishment No. 2185, Preschool Establishment No. 1678 in the Central and North-Eastern Administrative Districts of Moscow.

We sampled the 5-6 year-old children (n=99) on written parental consents for the study based on their 99 dispensary observation files. The sample was randomly split up into EG1, EG2 and RG. The RG was composed of healthy children (n=48, including 22 girls and 26 boys); EG1 of digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed individuals (n= 27, including 13 girls and 14 boys); and EG2 of digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed individuals (n=24, including 13 girls and 11 boys), with the digestive system dysfunctions dominated by bybiliary dyskinesia of mixed type at remission stage as reported by the local pediatricians. Dynamic observation service under the study was provided by staff pediatricians from Preschool Establishments 809, No. 2185 and No. 1678.

The digestive system dysfunction group progresses were tested by the relevant biomedical methods including anthropometric tests (to rate body mass, height, and vital capacity); health rating Kettle, Skibinski and Ruffier tests; and mental health rating Nonexistent Animal Drawing test. The test set was selected based on recommendations for Preschool Establishments so as to rate every aspect of the mental and physical health.

Conclusion. The study tested the 5-6 year-old digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed EG1/2 children lower on the anthropometric characteristics, functionality and health test scales than their healthy RG peers – to demonstrate their urgent need for efficient health correction and improvement service. The digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed children were also tested with the poorer mental health rates, with 46 individuals tested with anxiety, 24 with depression, 16 with aggression and 9 with asthenia.

Keywords: preschoolers, physical development, children’s health, digestive system dysfunctions.

Background. Recent national statistics have reported growth of the 3-7 year-old preschool population  diagnosed with health disorders, with only 15% tested virtually healthy, 50% having different morphological/ functional issues and health disorders, and 42% diagnosed with chronic diseases, including digestive system dysfunctions  [2, 3, 6].

The children’s digestive system dysfunctions pathophysiology is still underexplored at this juncture, with progress of the diseases known to be spurred up by different factors including variations in the digestive system physiology and genetic, environmental and psychosocial factors [6]. Mental and physical health standards of the digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed 5-6 year-olds are known to lag behind that that of their basically healthy peers ranked with the main health group. Most of them are tested with mental health issues in need of special mental and physical health correction programs that shall be well customized for the actual etiology and severity of every disease plus the individual physical development, mental health, age and durations of the diseases.

Objective of the study was to test and analyze mental and physical health of the 5-6 year-olds diagnosed with digestive system dysfunctions.

Methods and structure of the studyю We run the study at Combined Preschool Establishment No. 809, Rehabilitative Preschool Establishment No. 2185, Preschool Establishment No. 1678 in the Central and North-Eastern Administrative Districts of Moscow.

We sampled the 5-6 years old children (n=99) on written parental consent for the study based on their 99 dispensary observation files. The sample was randomly split up into EG1, EG2 and RG. The RG was composed of healthy children (n=48, including 22 girls and 26 boys); EG1 of digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed individuals (n= 27, including 13 girls and 14 boys); and EG2 of digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed individuals (n=24, including 13 girls and 11 boys), with the digestive system dysfunctions dominated by bybiliary dyskinesia of mixed type in remission stage as reported by the local pediatricians. Dynamic observation service under the study was provided by staff pediatricians from Preschool Establishments 809, No. 2185 and No. 1678.

The digestive system dysfunction group progresses were tested by the relevant biomedical methods including anthropometric tests (to rate body mass, height, and vital capacity); health rating Kettle, Skibinski and Ruffier tests; and mental health rating Nonexistent Animal Drawing test [1, 2, 4, 5]. The test set was selected based on recommendations for Preschool Establishments so as to rate every aspect of the mental and physical health.

Results and discussion. We analyzed the available research data on the mental health test rates of the digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed and healthy children and health test data reported by different analysts for the 5-6 year-olds to select the most inclusive and relevant tests indicative of the physical development and vital systems functionalities; see Tables 1 and 2 hereunder.

Table 1. Anthropometric characteristics of the 5-6 year-old sample

Note: *EG2 versus RG difference significance rate; ** EG1 versus RG difference significance rate

           The EG1/2 anthropometric characteristics were found different from the RG in the boys and girls groups (p <0.05), with the EG1/2 body lengths and masses tested to average 4% and 10% lower than in the RG. The right carpal strength in the EG1 girls averaged 5.84+2.21kg versus 7.07+2.53kg in the RG peers (p <0.05). The RG was also tested higher than EG1/2 on the vital capacity test scale (p <0.05) that may be interpreted as indicative of the respiratory system dysfunctions in the digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed children.

Table 2. Health test rates of the sample

Note: *EG2 versus RG difference significance rate; ** EG1 versus RG difference significance rate

The health tests ranked the EG1/2 lower than the RG on every test scale, with the highest gap found on the Ruffier test scale. Thus the boys and girls scored in the Ruffier scale the following results: in EG1 17.1±1.3 and 15.6±1.2 points; in EG2 16.8+0.7 and 16.2+1.3 points; versus 10.1+0.7 and 9.6+0.9 points in the RG, respectively. In the Skibinsky test, the EG1 and EG2 boys scored 178.3±25.7 and 184.7+34.8 points, respectively; and the EG1 and RG girls scored 169.1±26.1 and 198.2+0.01 points, respectively. In the Kettle test, boys and girls scored in EG1 17.1±0.02 and 17.0±0.03 kg/cm; in EG2 17.0+0.02 and 17.1+0.02 kg/ cm; versus their RG peers who scored 18.6+0.02 and 18.9+0.02 kg/cm, respectively. The lower health test rates in EG1/2 versus RG may be indicative of the poorer health standards and pathologies that suppress the digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed children’s physical activity and physical stress tolerance.

Conclusion. The study tested the 5-6 year-old digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed EG1/2 children lower on the anthropometric characteristics, functionality and health test scales than their healthy RG peers – to demonstrate their urgent need for efficient health correction and improvement service. The digestive-system-dysfunction-diagnosed children were also tested with the poorer mental health rates, with 46 individuals tested with anxiety, 24 with depression, 16 with aggression and 9 with asthenia.

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