Morphological characteristics of Moscow preschool and elementary school children: preliminary results

Abstract

Introduction. The paper is dealing with the analysis of morphological characteristics of Moscow children of preschool and primary school age, with the emphasize on possible secular changes.

Materials and methods. The data were collected in a comprehensive survey of Moscow children aged 5-7 years (730 individuals), conducted in two series: in 2017-2019 and in 2024-2025. In accordance with the objectives of the work, the anthropometric characteristics were analyzed in the context of age changes, and as a comparison between the two series.

Results and discussion. The analysis of age-related changes in the examined preschoolers in the combined sample confirms the presence of a mini-growth spurt in height. For girls, it is occurred at the age of 5-6 years, in the group of boys – a year later and was less pronounced. Age-related changes in body weight, BMI and chest girth correspond to the pattern shown by height for children of each sex.

An analysis of secular changes in anthropometric traits allows to conclude that in all characteristics, boys examined in 2024-2025 surpassed their peers in 2017-2019 series measurements, while girls, on the contrary, practically did not differ from each other.

The obtained results somehow contradict to the classical studies, which state that in changing environmental conditions the representatives of male sex are most affected by those changes. It can be assumed that the interpretation of such results could be connected with psycho-emotional factors. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that other influences associated with the socio-economic changes that have taken place in recent years have had an equal impact on children of both sexes.

Conclusion. The results obtained in this study, on the one hand, are in good agreement with the previously studied age patterns, and on the other hand, to some extent contradict them.

The authors plan to continue the research in order to increase the sample sizes and to confirm the received results.

Acknowledgements. The study was conducted under the state assignment of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The authors thank their colleagues who participated in this study: O.A. Gilyarov and A.A. Vasilyeva (Moscow State University Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology) and M.A. Ilchenko (Russian University of Sport "GTSOLIFK").

The study was conducted with the support of the Moscow State University Center for Collective Use "Technologies for Obtaining New Nanostructured Materials and Their Comprehensive Study," the national project "Science," and the Moscow State University Development Program.

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