[Morbidity rate and mental capacity of Moscow schoolchildren (longitudinal study)].

In the article there are presented data of longitudinal study of the health of Moscow schoolchildren (426 children), followed throughout from the 1st to 9th class, inclusively. Students were annually clinically examined in the school. There was performed a comprehensive study of mental health and functional state of the organism in the process of education students in high school (over 2700 pupils of 5-9th classes). The health status of students was shown to deteriorate due to the increase of the prevalence of chronic disease, the rise in occupancy of the III-IV health groups, the decrease of the number of children referred to I and II health groups. Unfavorable trends in the health state among boys are more pronounced than in girls, while they are also characterized by lower functional capabilities of the CNS and lower resistance to the development of training fatigue. Relatively favorable stage of school ontogeny is characterized by period with reduced morbidity in children studying in 4th-6th classes. Deterioration in the health of students as a significant rate of the rise of chronic diseases morbidity is observed in 7-9th classes. Along with this, in the 7th and 9th classes there is revealed the deterioration of mental capacity and high frequency of the pronounced signs of fatigue among schoolchildren.

[Hygienic aspects of the use of LED light sources for general illumination in schools].

For the time present becoming more common semiconductor sources of artificial lighting has become a more and more frequent practice. With the aim to study the impact of LEDs on the health of schoolchildren studies in experimental conditions (specially equipped classrooms) were performed. The comparative analysis of the state of vision, mental health and emotional state of pupils in primary, middle and high schools under fluorescent and LED lighting, meeting to the regulatory requirements, has revealed that the physiological cost of schooling in the use of LED units in classrooms is lower than in a traditional, fluorescent lighting.

[Medico-prophylactic foundations of the safety of information and communication technologies used in educational institutions].

The problems pertaining to the safety of information and communication technologies used in the spheres of education and leisure activities of children and adolescents are discussed. The relevant risk factors are identified. Results of physiological and hygienic studies for substantiating regulations of continuous work with a personal computer are presented taking into account the children's age and hygienic requirements to electronic teaching aids.

[Trends in Moscow senior adolescent schoolchildren's growth and development at the turn of millennia].

The presented materials are the result of many years' observations of the growth and development of Moscow senior adolescent schoolchildren, by revealing main trends in their physical development. By using the representative material (more than 2.5 thousand persons), the authors consider the trend in the physical development of 16-17-year-old adolescents examined in 1960-2007 by the strictly unified program. The physical development of Moscow adolescents has been recently characterized by: 1) neither increment in size signs no cardinal changes in the level of biological maturity; 2) a fall in the proportion of persons with normal physical development and a rise in the number of deviations (particularly in young males due to overweight); 3) a progressive reduction in strength capacities.

[Moscow schoolchildren's morbidity in the past 50 years].

The paper analyzes morbidity among Moscow schoolchildren in the past 50 years on the basis of the results of in-depth studies of pupils by the researchers of the Research Institute for the Hygiene and Health Care of Children and Adolescents. There is a significant reduction in the number of absolutely healthy children, the proportion of which is 2-4%. There is a considerable increase in the prevalence of dysfunctions and chronic diseases among schoolchildren. Particularly high increment rates of morbidity were observed in the 1990s. The morbidity structure has changed in the past 50 years. Both biomedical and psychosocial factors are responsible for changes in the morbidity levels and structure of children and adolescents.

[Current health status of children and adolescents and the role of socio-medical factors in its formation].

This paper summarizes results of research carried out at the Institute of Hygiene and Health Protection of Children and Adolescents during the last 15 years. Specifically, it presents data of longitudinal studies involving 1-5-form schoolchildren residing in Moscow. Dynamic studies of morbidity and physical development in 1-2-grade schoolchildren suggest stressful effect of adaptation to increasing teaching loads. In-depth studies of senior schoolchildren conducted in 1989-2005 revealed long-standing unfavourable trends in their health status including marked deterioration of functional activities and physical development, increased prevalence of chronic diseases, and changes in the overall morbidity structure. Main schooling-dependent risk factors are identified, such as excess academic loads and authoritarian teaching style (responsible for psychoemotional stress), hypokinesia, and malnutrition during school hours. Incidence of certain diseases and functional disorders among adolescents is shown to correlate with the use of alcohol and tobacco.

[Hygienic aspects of physical development and reproductive health in schoolgirls].

This paper is based on the results of medical examination (single-step and longitudinal) of more than 10,000 schoolgirls and students aged 8-17 and 17-23 years respectively undertaken in Moscow in 1960-2004 and on the archival data (6500 medical cards of primipara women) from maternity hospitals dated to 1981-1990. It was shown that a main feature of growth and development of the female organism in the recent years was gracialization of the girls' stature due to reduced transverse and circumferential body measures including diameter of pelvis. This finding implies a risk of reproductive health impairment with time. Future reproductive potential of schoolgirls is negatively affected by such social factors as excess academic load, psychoemotional stress during the last school year and prior to entering a higher education institution, schoolwork-dominated life style hampering realization of biological needs of the developing organism (in the first place motor activity).

[Scientific bases of the improvement of and planting of trees and bushes in the playgrounds of outbuilding areas].

The major factors forming the environment of a current megapolis, such as man-made pollution, planting of trees and bushes (outbuilding and street plantings, proximity to the large forest tracts), and improvement of microdistricts (the presence of playgrounds equipped in compliance with the age-related and physiological and hygienic requirements), on the health status of children. The comprehensive evaluation of the physical development and the health status of schoolchildren aged 6 to 10 years shows that the children who live at equal distances from the major source of environmental pollution and have the equal social status and the identical level of health care, but differing in the remoteness from the large forest tract and in the improvement of planting of trees and bushes in the playgrounds they have significant differences in the physical development, overall morbidity, and the prevalence rates of chronic diseases. While planning the playgrounds of the micro-districts and outbuilding areas, it is necessary to draw up hygienic regulations of their improving and planting.

[Priority criteria for assessing the health status and prevention of diseases in children and adolescents].

The paper presents the currently available methods for assessing the health status of children and adolescents, the basic principles in the organization and performance of prophylactic examinations in children, including the assessment of their physical fitness, as well as the methods and criteria for assessing the phychophysiological development of adolescents, their social adaptability and autonomic stability. It also contains the currently used basic criteria for assessing the health status of children, as well as their health groups. The high effectiveness of children's health promotion in educational establishments can be achieved, by applying the basic principles in the organization and implementation of prophylactic and health-promoting measures.

[Health condition and medical care of adolescents in the Russian Federation]. / Sostoianie zdorov'ia i meditsinskoe obespechenie podrostkov Rossiiskoi Federatsii.

A dynamic description of teenagers' health status in the Russian Federation is presented in the article over a period of 40 years. A pronounced increasing proliferation of impaired functions and a prevalence of chronic pathologies in children were outstripping the growth rates; a worsening health condition in children revealed through a sharply reduced quantity of healthy children and a bigger share of chronically sick children; a changed structure of prevalence of functional disorders and of chronic pathologies among children reflecting, to a certain extent, the negative impact produced by the social as well as by ecological-and-hygienic conditions of contemporary life of schoolchildren; as well as a pronounced influence exerted by such significant factors, as social well-being, an intensified educational process and a premature labor occupation of children, on the evolution of children's health can be attributed to specific features of the build-up of children's health during different time periods under the conditions of today. The negative dynamics of the health status in children of the country necessitated a decision on reforming the provision of teenagers with medical care and on creating a system of continuous medical check-ups for them. Various forms of medical care as applicable to teenagers are analyzed.

[Hygiene of shaping up a healthy working generation under the conditions of today]. / Gigienicheskie problemy formirovaniia zdorovogo trudovogo potentsiala v sovremennykh usloviiakh.

Prerequisites of shaping up the health condition, including health status, life mode and conditions of occupational training, in teenagers receiving workers' skills at basic-stage professional training facilities are under consideration. The specificity of adaptive responses and of health status is described in young females, mastering the jobs within the confectionary and public catering industry, during the professional training period, which is indicative of a higher sensitivity of teenagers' organisms towards the production factors' effects. Reliable trends towards aggravated indices of the health status in pupils of professional training facilities were registered during a 10-year observation period. A continued worsening of the life mode is noted in teenagers, which manifests itself mainly through a higher prevalence of smoking and frequent abuse of alcohol with the bad habits setting on at an earlier age. Labor occupation of pupils, when combined with professional training, is an extra risk factor in the building-up of health. Thus the obtained data witness to a worsening life mode of teenagers, who earn on the side, and to their worsening health status. Conclusions are made on a need to overcome the negative prerequisites related with shaping up the health condition of teenagers in the discussed social category.

[Health and physical activity in adolescents of today]. / Sostoianie zdorov'ia i fizicheskaia aktivnost' sovremennykh podrostkov.

The results of clinical and epidemiological studies conducted by the researchers of Research Institute of Hygiene and Care of Children and Adolescents, Health Research Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, are indicative of a substantial deterioration of health in adolescents in the late 20th century. Inactivity typical for young people of today has been found to be a major risk factor of cardiovascular functional disorders and metabolic osteopathies whose prevalence has increased among adolescents. There is evidence for that there is an association of low activity with the occurrence of calcium homeostatic disorders that result in osteomuscular diseases, cardiovascular functional disorders, deteriorated physical development, decreased functional (force) capacities of the growing organism in adolescents. In addition to inactivity, excessive exercise experienced by young athletes also causes marked disorders, in girls in particular.

[Professional orientation of youth: medical and psychophysiological aspects]. / Professional'naia orientatsiia molodezhi: meditsinskii i psikhofiziologicheskii aspekty.

The scientific and practical aspects of medical and psychophysiological professional orientation in teenagers and young people have become more and more pressing due to their poorer health along with higher demands for their resistance to unfavourable factors. The aid of a physician and a psychophysiologist in their choice of a future profession promotes the prevention of general and occupational morbidity. Work on professional orientation should be began at school in the 5th-6th and done through school life during which they get a general and vocational education. Guidelines have been developed for effective medical and physiological professional counselling.

[Current informational technologies in the structure of medical and psychological tasks of school education]. / Sovremennye informatsionnye tekhnologii v strukture mediko-psikhologicheskikh zadach shkol'nogo obrazovaniia.

Prospects for equipment of present-day school with computing machinery allow fresh approaches to be applied to the improvement of means for diagnosis and health prophylaxis in children and to professional orientation. Automatic systems have been developed for diagnosing diseases and monitoring the sociomental health of children and the adaptation of junior and middle schoolchildren to school activities. The systems provide a real way of successfully following the development of major mental functions for prenosological diagnosis of detected abnormalities and their subsequent correction. An automatic system for professional orientation of middle- and senior-form pupils has been devised on the basis of mental diagnostic testing of the schoolchildren's professional orientation, interests, inclinations, psychophysiological and personality traits.