Antropomotoryka nr 51 - Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego w ...

Larysa G. Shakhlina, Teresa Sochaby the health service. As to Sharapova [1], the directorof the Department of Medico-Social Problems ofFamily, Maternity and Childhood, Ministry of Health andSocial Development of Russian Federation, until nowthere is no unified opinion in Russian literature whetherteenagers are in need of special medical provision.The main goal of teenager medicine is to protectand strengthen the health of teenagers for future optimalrealization of their forces and abilities in creativeactivity of a society [1, 2].Subject to the terms of somatic, psychological andsocial maturation, in 1977 WHO experts proposed to consider10–20-year-old person as a teenager and this definitionstill applied in the most countries of the world [2].It is accepted to divide human life cycle into twostages – antenatal and postnatal. The last one, by turnis composed of a line of age-specific periods that differby special features – morphological, physiological,biochemical and functional. Motor activity, changing thefunctions of an organism, assists in their development,perfection of mechanisms of an adaptation – that is whyage-specific features of functional abilities of man definehis working capacity.Pubescence or so-called teenage [3], or pubertal[4, 5] period has its own place in age-specific developmentprocess. Such periods as: teenage/pubertal(13–16 years of age for boys and 12–15 years of agefor girls) and junior (17–21 years of age for boys and16–20 years of age for girls) should be separated outin a scheme and accepted on the grounds of anatomy,morphology, physiology, biochemistry, pedagogy. Afterthat, the features of growth and development of humanbody should be accepted by the All-USSR conferenceon age-specific periodization by the Academy ofPedagogical Science of the USSR. While analyzing thescheme of age-specific periodization, Chtetcov [6] andNikityuk [7] emphasize that 13-year-old boys on theirpubescence level correspond with 11-year-old girls.That is why pubescence of boys starts just at the beginningof teenage period differently to the pubescenceof girls, where substantially covers the previous periodof the second childhood (the age of 8–12 for boys and8–11 for girls) [8, 9, 10].Teenage period is a stage of transition from childhoodto maturity, characterized by the processes ofrapidness of tempos of physical, mental, spiritual andsocial growth. Gurkin [2] emphasizes that teenage periodis a really existing phase in human life, when personhas not been already a child but not yet an adult[2, 11].Some authors divide the age of pubescence intotwo phases: prepubertal, which is very expressed ingirls, and pubertal. Menarche is a conditional boarderbetween them [10, 12, 13].Boys and girls up to 6 years of age belong to neutral– asexual – period on the level of sexual development.Approximately two-year lasting outdistancing onset ofpubertal period of girls in comparison with boys definesthe necessity for describing firstly this phase of ontogenesisin girls. According to belief that the period ofpubescence lasts about 10 years, age limits are establishedbetween 7 (8) and 17 (18) years of life. Duringthis period, besides the maturation of a reproductivesystem, physical development of female body – growthof body length, ossification of growth zones of tubularbones, allocation of adipose tissue on female type, formationof constitution typical for women – has beingfinished [9, 14].The beginning of pubescence in girls is accompaniedby the increase of epinephros’ secretion of sexsteroids up to 7 years of age, and ovaries – up to 10–11years [23]. Rapid somatic and sexual development ofgirls is conditioned by activation of sex glands [8, 15].Clinical sign of prepubertal period of girls, which beginswith the age of 10–11 years and continues up to13–14 years, is the acceleration of skeleton growth inlength – so-called pubertal “leap of growth” that affectsall body size, which is conditioned by anabolic effect ofsex hormones. Androgens increase the growth of skeleton;estrogens cause the maturing of bone tissue andossification of growth zones of tubular bones [16].Pubertal leap of growth could increase the bodylength from 7 to 10 cm per year. From the age of 11–12years girls are ahead of boys in stature that is connectedwith the earlier beginning of their pubescence.At the age of 13–14 years girls and boys grow almostthe same but from the age of 14–15 years boys outrungirls in growth and this excess of growth of men uponwomen is remained during the whole life [7, 15, 17].Old formulated hypothesis of the Moscow gynecologists’school [18, 19] concerning the fact that initiationof pubescence is invoked by maturing of the nucleushypothalamus participating in regulation of the gonadotropicfunctions of hypophisys has been corroboratedwith current science achievements. While investigating580 healthy girls at the age of 11–16 it was stated[20] that 22% of them had overweigh (redundant bodyweight – RBW), and 20% had insufficient body weight –its deficit (DBW). Development of mammary glands asan indicator of the beginning of pubescence in 11-year-– 98 –