THE ASSESSMENT OF THE GROWTH PROCESSES OF LATVIAN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN COMPARISON WITH WHO GROWTH STANDARDS

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Background. Due to worldwide growing problem of overweight and obesity the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently issued recommendations and guidelines for regular collection of data on weight, height and waist and hip circumference in children. Aim. The aim of the research is to determine body composition of Latvian children in the last decade and to compare most important anthropometric characteristics of the Latvian children with the WHO Growth Standards 2007. Material and Methods. Research was made using anthropometrical and questionnaire methods (about their lifestyle) trying to conclude if the increase of the excessive body mass and adiposity in Latvian preschool and a youngest grade schoolchildren is similar to one in other countries in the world, because the risk of health problem development increases in proportion with the body mass index enlargement or decrease. Total of 1235 healthy children were surveyed from all regions and different socio-economic groups. Results and Discussion. After loosing the independence in year 1940 and especially in the post war period, the ethnic situation in Latvia has had major changes - due to emigration the amount of Latvian, and other nationality inhabitants in the country significantly decreased. This also includes a high number of multi national marriages, majority of them between Russians and Latvians. The correlation between BMI and fatness in children is influenced by age, sex, pubertal status and ethnicity. Since 2007 WHO growth reference charts was prevalent distributed, but child growth depends from geographic area and social and economic conditionals. Conclusions. Comparing Latvian schoolchildren BMI values with the WHO Growth Standards, we can see that BMI percentiles values are significantly different. The WHO growth standards do not reflect the phenotypic range of the Latvian preschool and school children and we recommend using the Latvian growth curves (1998) to evaluate the growth processes of the Latvian children.