[Nutritional status of preschool children of Moscow megalopolis at the beginning of the 21st century (somatometric aspects)].

Obesity is one of the most important and actual problems of public health, of healthcare, which dramatically expanded through the latest four decades. The aim of the study was the analysis of physical conditions of Moscow preschoolers at the beginning of 21th century as the indicator of nutritional status in «obesogenic» environment of megalopolis. Material and methods. Complex anthropometric study of children attending kinder gardens in Moscow (aged 3-7 years) was held in 2005-2006 (n=759). Literature data on samples of the 1970s were used for comparison. Anthropometric measurements were used to calculate personal values of body mass index (BMI, kg/m2). The more detailed estimation of somatic specificity of children included calculation of average values of standardized differences of each single body dimension of material of 2005-2006 from the values of samples of the 1970s. Results and discussion. The distribution of BMI of Moscow preschoolers at the beginning of 21th century (13.6% were overweight and 7.5% were obese) is quite comparable to the results of other population studies in Russia and around the world. The circumferences, mediated by adipose tissue, and skinfolds of modern Moscow preschoolers showed very significant increase of average standardized levels of dimensions (0.9-1.1 standard deviations as compared to the data of the 1970s). The comparison with the results of the similar study of Moscow school children allows, probably, to speak about the existence of accumulation effect as the mechanism of obesity development in the age aspect. Conclusion. The effect of the significant and valid increase of adiposity in preschoolers, combined with very modest changes of the size and shape of skeletal/muscle system and even its relative weakening was shown based on the results of the survey of Moscow preschoolers, conducted in 2005-2006, in comparison with the series of the 1970s.