[Evaluation of somatic development of children brought up in state child tutorial homes of the Katowice province].

Studies were aimed at assessing somatic development of children and youth deprived of familial homes and brought up a State Child Tutorial Homes (SCTH) in the Katowice voivodeship. After somatometric examinations of 588 boys and girls aged between 7-18 years, brought up at 20 SCTH, 13 traits were analysed statistically. Results of measurements were compared with the data for analogous all-Polish populations, prepared and published by the Department of Anthropology, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Wrocław. Mean values of the differences between both groups in the major part of traits showed that children brought up at SCTH were greatly inferior to their co-equals of the reference group. In all age groups, the bone measurements, particularly the longitudinal ones (stature and lower extremities), displayed the greatest differences. This differentiation was much slighter for the traits related to chest structure and circumference of the extremities. Skin-fold thickness did not in the younger age groups differ from that exhibited by the reference population, whereas in the older groups the differences increased in favour of the children brought up at SCTH under doubtless inferior living conditions. According to the present results, children brought up at SCTH in the Katowice voivodeship differ significantly from the all-Polish population in their developmental indices. Apart from displaying lower values of the major part of the investigated traits, they are characterized by more marked obesity manifesting itself by a greater total skin-fold thickness.