Urban ecology through the prism of the obesity epidemic and the tempo of somatic growth

Background: The relevance of this study is dictated by a significant increase in the number of overweight and obese urban children and adolescents at the same time with recorded shifts in the pace of puberty. Aim: The aim of the study was to find correlations and relationships between temporary fluctuations in growth rates and the epidemic of fat deposition on the materials of children in Moscow. Materials and methods: The study analyzes an extensive group of samples of Moscow schoolchildren (7/8–17 years old) examined in the interval from the 1950s to the beginning of the XXI century. The work uses both literary data and the authors' own materials. To assess the intergroup differences, ethnoterritorial samples of both our country and the nearest abroad were involved. For each of the examined clusters, the age of the maximum rate of increase in body height in adolescence (a peak height velocity, PHV) was determined, and indicators of the amount of fat deposition were also used: the thickness of the skin-fat folds under the shoulder blade and on the triceps, body mass index. Results: It is shown, that the growth in boys is a more interconnected complex of processes, as evidenced by the more pronounced secular dynamics of the PHV, and the dynamics of changes in the amount of fat deposition that are in strict antiphase with it, and statistically significant correlations between growth rates and the level of fat deposition in the interval 7/8–17 years, and reliable correlations of the PHV and BMI in 7–8 years old. At the same time, the frequency of correlations with the intensity (the level of growth in cm) of PHV is the same for girls and boys (6 reliable correlations each) and their sign, unlike the age of PHV, is positive — the longer the body height, the higher the intensity of PHV. The highest level of correlations of body height with the intensity of PHV is noted at 7 years old, with no alternative to gender, which allows us to speak cautiously about the non-accidental contribution of body height, approximately at the age of a half-growth leap, to the intensity of APHV. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that the growth rates of Moscow boys are associated with the absolute values of fat deposition, in particular, the thickness of the fat fold on the back and the body mass index. In girls, in turn, the parallelism of the secular dynamics of the age of maximum growth rate and the dynamics of changes in the thickness of fat folds is less clearly expressed. The leading component in the development of secondary sexual characteristics (development rates) for this group is low-fat body weight.