Introduction.There are a number of genes, individual alleles of which or their combinations make the carrier susceptible to the disease. In the case of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, the hypothesis of a “thrifty genotype” was put forward as a combination of gene alleles that provided their carriers with advantages in the prehistoric and historical past, but provoked morbidity now. Such a genotype should have previously been under the positive selection, whereas in the modern world it may play a negative role. It is also obvious that the expression of the thrifty genotype as well as the genes that form it and their alleles, should depend on anthropological and ecological conditions: the ecology of the region where the human population lives and their traditional subsistence and farming systems.
The aim of the proposed review is to systematize modern views on the problem of thrifty genotype with special attention to the evolutionary anthropological, and ecological aspects of the problem.
Materials and methods. Herein we represent a review of current data regarding the thrifty genotype hypothesis. The paper reviews the main theses of the hypothesis, its basis, and the arguments of supporters and critics. The evolutionary, anthropological, and ecological aspects of the thrifty genotype hypothesis are discussed.
Results. A significant number of experimental studies and reviews give an idea of the distribution of thrifty genotypes in populations of different origins and anthropological affiliations. However, the coverage of material and inclusion of population data in the analysis is uneven. The genetic geography of thrifty genotypes remains poor and, commonly, insufficiently studied. The most complete and methodologically correct systematization of primary materials on the prevalence of thrifty genotypes, their connection with the ecological conditions of the natural environment, and anthropogenic factors, including traditional subsistence and farming systems and the nature of nutrition, remains still relevant.
Introduction.The study of adiposity in children and adolescents is an important issue in the era of the global epidemic of obesity. Body mass index is the most common, but not the only body fat index. There are also indexes based on waist and hip circumferences. The purpose of this work is to analyze the age variability and correlation between various anthropometric indices and bioimpedance estimates of the percentage of body fat in children and adolescents.
Materials and methods. We analyzed the data of children and adolescents of both sexes 7-17 years old, 1885 boys and 1453 girls, collected in the course of cross-sectional anthropological surveys of schoolchildren in Moscow, Arkhangelsk and the Arkhangelsk region. Body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), hip-to-height ratio (HHtR) were calculated. The percentage of fat mass (% FM) was obtained by bioimpedance with the ABC-01 “Medas” device. Correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between indices and %FM.
Results and discussion.
The paper analyzes the age-related variability of height and weight, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, WHR, WHtR, HHtR and % FM in children and adolescents of both sexes. Age-related changes in % FM have clear sex differences. In girls, during puberty, there is an accumulation of fat mass, while in boys – its decrease. Body weight, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, HHtR increase in the process of growth, WHR and WHtR decrease. For all indicators, except for WHR, in boys and girls in younger age groups, correlations with % FM are high and decrease with age, reaching average values. While the correlations of WHR with %FM are weak in all studied age groups.
Keywords:
body composition; waist circumference; body mass index; waist-to-hip ratio; waist-to-height ratio; fat mass; children and adolescents; biological anthropology
Introduction. A number of studies have shown that the Khalka rural pastoral population of Mongolia leading a traditional lifestyle is not characterized by acceleration of development and a secular trend in somatic characteristics of the body. The purpose is to study the morphological variability of head and face features in the adult rural Khalkha-Mongolian population against the background of variability of the same features in the Chuvash group and try to catch acceleration trends based on measuring head features.
Materials and methods. The data (370 men and 355 women aged 18-60) was obtained during anthropoecological expeditions in 1986-1990 in 4 Khalkha-Mongolian somons. As a comparative material, data on the Chuvash of Bashkiria were used. Regression analysis was applied. The age-related variability of normalized values of cephalometric traits was assessed using variance analysis. For the Mongolian and Chuvash populations, the coefficients of sexual dimorphism of individual features of the face and head (according to V. Deryabin`s formula), as well as the Mahalanobis distance between female and male samples were determined.
Results and discussion. For the studied characteristics (head length and breadth, the minimal forehead breadth and facial breadth, face height, facial and head indexes) in men, no reliable links were found between the variability of these traits and age. Variance analysis of normalized values of cephalometric signs revealed no differences in either the male or female Mongolian sample. The Mahalanobis distances calculated from the complex of head and face signs between the female and male Mongolian subsamples are noticeably smaller than the corresponding values obtained for the Chuvash group.
Introduction.The purpose of this work was to study the physical development of modern newborns in rural areas and analyze the influence on their basic anthropometric indicators of such biological factors as the serial number of pregnancy and childbirth, as well as the age of the parents at time of.
Materials and methods. Materials on rural children were collected in 2020–2022 in the Baranovichi district of the Brest region of the Republic of Belarus on the basis of the Children's City Clinic in the city of Baranovichi. The method of analyzing outpatient cards was used. A total of 231 newborn histories were studied (120 boys and 111 girls). The main anthropometric characteristics of children (body weight, body length, head circumference and chest circumference), as well as the age of the parents and the number of pregnancies and births in the mother were taken into account. The significance of differences was assessed based on Student's t-test. To conduct a comparative analysis of the dynamics over time of the physical development of newborns, materials from surveys of 1976–1978 were used.
Results. The bulk of modern births were women aged 25–34 years (66,6%). More than half of the newborns were born from repeated births – 79,2%. The average age of primiparous women was 25,2±0,7 years, multiparous women – 30,5±0,4. It was found that modern rural newborns had higher average indicators of physical development than newborns of 1976–1978, except for head circumference. Children from repeated births were larger in size, especially boys, in whom the difference reached a statistically significant level. Weak but significant positive correlations were noted between some indicators of the physical development of rural newborns with the age of the parents and the serial number of pregnancy and birth of the mother.
