Comparative Assessment of Physical Development of Children and Adolescents Living in Territories with Different Levels of Anthropogenic Load

Introduction: Correlations are considered as a reliable indicator of adaptive variability in populations. Objective: To make a comparative assessment of physical development of children and adolescents living in areas with different levels of anthropogenic load. Material and methods: We analyzed the structure of correlations between morphological and functional indicators of children and adolescents (n = 5,137) and the level of anthropogenic load (from relatively satisfactory to critical) in four territories for the years 2018–2021. We measured body length and weight, chest circumference, right and left hand grip strength, vital capacity of the lungs, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and sexual size dimorphism, and then calculated the body mass index and body surface area. The variability of somatic and functional indices was examined separately in age-standardized groups of 9, 13 and 15-year-old boys and girls. Significant differences in the frequencies of statistical correlations in each group and in different environmental clusters were determined. Results: We established a statistical decrease in body length by 0.82 % and in right and left handgrip strength by 5.22 % and 9.68 %, respectively, accompanied by an increase in body weight by 5.02 %, chest circumference by 1.26 %, and vital capacity by 5.56 %, all associated with an increase in the level of anthropogenic load in the area. In environmental clusters with intense and critical load, we noted a decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 4.54 % and 5.89 %, respectively, and an increase in the heart rate by 2.81 %. We found an increase in the total number of age and sex-specific intrasystemic (anthropometric) and intersystemic (anthropometric/hemodynamic) morphofunctional correlations from 186 in clean areas to 228 in heavily polluted ones. Health effects of environmental contamination was the most pronounced in 9-year-old children of both sexes. Conclusion: An increase in the frequency of significant intrasystemic and intersystemic correlations of morphological and functional indicators in children and adolescents with the increase in environmental load indicates tension of adaptive mechanisms in the body; the effect of interactions between environmental pollution and anthropogenic parameters in age and sex groups is attributed to greater sensitivity in the male cohort.