Sexual dimorphism of body dimensions variability in connection with ecological factors in infant period of ontogenesis

Introduction. Dynamics of sexual dimorphism, SD, of 4 main anthropometric dimensions of 12 months old children in connection with different exogenous factors is under discussion. Materials and methods. The object of the investigation is SD variability of height, weight, chest and head girths of 12-months-old children 50 urban groups examined in 1960th-1970th are analysed. Data is borrowed from textbooks on physical development, published by Research Institute of Hygiene and Health of Children and Adolescents (1962, 1965, 1977 years). The quantitative estimation of the value of SD is based on Kullback divergence. The exogenous factors block includes different anthropogenic factors (water pollution level, air pollution, population density etc.) and climatic factors (geographical latitude of locality as characteristic of daylight duration and partly insolation level, difference between minimal and maximal year temperature values, minimal temperature of January). The estimation of direction and level of associations between somatic parameters SD and ecological factors was held using correlation analysis. Program package Statistica 10 was applied. Results. The preliminary factor analysis of considered exogenous factors extracted 4 factors, covering 79% of variability of ecological niche parameters in total. Dominant role of population size as characteristic of urban ecological niche was shown. Correlations of somatic dimensions SD of 12-months-old children with most significant ecological parameters, selected by means of factor analysis, were insignificant, but evaluation of their direction for different pairs of characteristic reveals, that for SD of height and weight associations with exogenous factors are negative, for SD of girths – are positive. Hence such body parameters as height and weight are more ecosensitive for girls, while head and chest girths for boys. The dominant role of population size characteristic in somatic variability of 1-year-old children is proved by changing of direction of correlations between SD levels and such factors as water and air pollution when megalopolises are excluded from the sample sets. Conclusion. The main result of the study is different by sex phenotype plasticity of somatic parameters in infancy. It has been revealed also that somatic status of urban samples of 1970th is associated mainly with population size

Anthropometry · Biology · Climatology · Daylight · Ecological niche · Geography · Insolation · Physical geography · Population · Sexual dimorphism · Statistics · Zoology · Demography · Human Health and Disease · Mathematics · Physical Education and Training Studies · Ecology

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