Children are less hardy than their parents
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Malnutrition, sedentary lifestyle are the first causes of diseases of a modern child. Most of the children today are not fit to lead an active lifestyle, they are more painful, they get tired faster. NAMS Ukraine reports that over the past decade the percentage of illnesses of schoolchildren has increased 27 times. Only 7% of modern school-age children have a satisfactory state of health.
In southern Australia, long-term studies were conducted aimed at studying the endurance of children during physical exertion, namely when running. The experiment lasted from 1964 to 2010, and it involved more than 25 million children from 28 countries, whose age was from 9 to 17 years. Scientists, first of all, paid their attention to the state of the cardiovascular system of the child after a 15-minute run, how long the children had a distance of 800-3200 meters. It turned out that over the last four decades, children have become much less enduring. Every decade there is a 5% reduction in endurance. The child now a distance of 1.5 km runs on average 1.5 times slower than a child of the same age 30 years ago. However, the reduction in endurance is not observed in all countries. Australia, North America, New Zealand are countries in which children have become less enduring, but in China, on the contrary, children become stronger with each generation, in Japan, endurance does not change significantly, remaining at about the same level.
Decrease in endurance, scientists attribute to obesity in children, which is associated with a sedentary lifestyle, inadequate physical activity, improper food (fast foods, fatty foods, etc.). Experts are sure that every child at least an hour a day should perform physical exercises (running, swimming, bicycle trips, etc.).
The state of health of Ukrainian schoolchildren is on a catastrophic level. 11% of first-graders have problems with the musculoskeletal system, 25% - with a nasopharynx, 30% - with the nervous system and organs of the digestive tract, 25% - have various allergic reactions. Over the years, schoolchildren have a 1.5-fold decrease in visual acuity, there is a violation of posture, there is a disease of the endocrine and digestive system. But only 5% of children belong to a special medgruppe. The Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology reports heavier data: only about 10% of adolescents aged 12 to 18 are relatively healthy, with 65% of girls and 50% of young men adapting to the load at below-average or very low levels.
67 years is the average life expectancy in Ukraine, at the same time in Iceland, Switzerland - the same indicator is at the level above 80 years. The duration of a healthy life of a Ukrainian is at the level of 55 years, and Icelanders, Swiss, Swedes - above 70 years. International organizations suggest that if Ukraine's policy remains at the same level, by 2025 the number of Ukrainians will decrease to 37 million, and according to the UN assumptions, by the middle of the 21st century, approximately 26 million people will remain in Ukraine.
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