As a result of improvement of health literacy of parents, the number of families, which positively changed their lifestyle and improved overall moral and psychological climate in the family, has increased 2,5 times.
Health protection of the younger generation is not only one of the most urgent health problems, but also an important social task of the state, as the health of children represents a fundamental basis for the formation of capacity of the health of adult members of society. Strengthening of the health of children and introduction of measures aimed at its optimization contribute to the successful development of the country, maintaining its stability and social security. Undoubtedly, it must be remembered, that the foundations of the health of every generation is built up in the family, being an important socio-demographic group that bears the function of hygienic education, preventive measures, treatment and rehabilitation. This is of particular importance for children — the most vulnerable layer of population, who need special attention of both medical staff as well the parents, who formulate corresponding lifestyle of the family and the child [2].
Goal of the Research
With the view to develop measures on improvement of the health of children a research has been carried out to study diseases and lifestyles of families with children, which allowed us to identify the most important factors influencing the health of families.
Material and Methods of Research
The object of the study of health and lifestyle was the representative group of families (1123) with school-age children, constantly residing in Bukhara city, followed up by the doctors of medical institutions 4, 11 — municipal clinics. Analysis of the health of 1089 mothers-daughters, 956 men-fathers and 2196 school-age children has been accomplished. All families which were subjected to observation were examined using a unified specially designed program consisting of 7 sections: analysis of works published on the studied problem: socio-demographic characteristics of parents raising children of school age; socio-biological characteristics of children of school age; comprehensive socio-sanitary assessment of lifestyle of families with school-age children; comprehensive characteristics of the health status of families with children; factors that shape the health of families with school-age children, the effectiveness of recommendations on interactive recovery adopted by the parents.
Results of the Research
The results of study of socio-demographic characteristics of the examined contingent of families showed that the majority (81.3 %) of families belongs to the category of full families, however, among them 4.2 % live in civil marriage. The obtained data indicate that 16.7 % of the surveyed families are incomplete due to parents' divorce, and in 89 % of cases the initiators of the disruption of the families are women — mothers, who are now a days becoming economically more and more independent, highly estimating their role in the family, and in this connection presenting increased requirements to their husbands. 72.3 % of families are bringing up two children, whereas 27.7 % of families have three or more children [1].
The average size of family with school-age children, made up 4.09 person, where one family has 1,2 ± 0,04 child, which corresponds to the official data. The study of the socio-sanitary characteristics of children included the evaluation of biological and social factors affecting the health and quality of life of school-age children. It is noted that 65.6 % of the children came to existence from the first pregnancy, 89.2 % — from the first birth delivery. In total 56.3 % of children had 7 points or more at birth as per Apgar score. Rather unfavorable is the fact that 43.3 % of mothers of surveyed children had a history of abortion. It is well known that abortion negatively affects the health of children, as subsequent pregnancies and childbirth of these women flow with a variety of complications, which affect the development of the child. The results of the study confirm this regularity and suggest there is a direct correlative dependence (r = + 0,687. M = ± 0,0038, p <0.0001) between the gestation course and childbirth and abortion history [3]. According to our research, in cases of pregnancy ending by birth of surveyed child, every second mother (53.8 %) had various complications of pregnancy and childbirth, including cases of (100 women surveyed): — pregnancy toxicosis (39); — threat of preterm birth (31); — Weakness of birth activity and application of forceps (25); — Improper placenta Previa (19), — operations during delivery (10) — anemia (73); — presence of extra genital pathology (9). The most important aspect of the child's life is his social adaptation, which is determined by the possibility of attending an educational institution. It should be taken into account that the period of adaptation of children to school is one of the critical instances in the life of a child [4].
Starting from the pre-school age, especially in the early school years, formation of personality takes place, social skills of conduct are formed, social self-consciousness gets formulated.
At this very age, most of the children start shaping their own attitude to everything they encounter: parents and caregivers, peers and friends. Nature of the child plays an important role in this. The study has established that 75.3 % of parents believe that their child is sociable, cheerful and joyful. However, the alarming fact is 14 % of parents reported that their child does not seek to communicate with others, and 19 % of parents believe that their child is reserved and afraid to come in contact with teachers and other children. Those children who attended preschool institutions (kindergarten, etc.) more quickly adapt to the beginning of school life, they feel more confident and comfortable in the school community [3]. The study of children’s progress revealed that children who attend school willingly and with interest easily and quickly learn the curriculum. Thus, the grade point average (GPA) of children who attend school with pleasure made up 4.6; whereas in the group of children who go to school «reluctantly» the GPA was significantly lower — 3.7. It was found that with age the time for preparation of one lesson is reduced (from 28.4 to 18.6 minutes), however the total time spent on homework increases with the transition to higher forms of school. At school age, children start getting actively involved in various activities, which certainly broadens the mind of the child, facilitates his/her intellectual and spiritual development, improves quality of his/her life. Particular role in this regard is attributed to parents seeking to attract and involve children in different additional exercises and activities: sports, painting, music, foreign languages, etc. It was noted that 17.2 % of children are involved in certain additional activities, and with age, the number of such children is significantly increased. It is noteworthy that more than 60 % of the children would like to have additional classes, but only 44 % — were able to implement their desires. The study of the nature of leisure activities of surveyed children revealed that most of the school children spend free time watching television. Second place among the interests of the child is computer games. A survey of parents and children has revealed that significant part of children (82.8 %) spend their leisure in front of the computer at home, as well as in computer clubs, internet cafes, etc. Worrisome is the fact that almost 90 % of children spend their time in front of computer screens exceeding the permissible limits (0.5 hours per day) recommended by doctors, which undoubtedly contributes to the deterioration of health and quality of life. The study of children’s sickness rate indicates that the level is relatively high — average of 1970,3 ‰. At the same time the incidence of boys at the age of 7 is higher than that of girls (respectively 2483 ‰against 2445 ‰), and after the age of 7 years in all age groups the incidence is higher with girls by an average of 5.4 %. The analysis of age-specific structure of children’s sicknesses revealed no differences between boys and girls. The analysis of the structure of sickness by age showed the generality of diseases of children aged between 7 to 10 years and from 11 to 14 years, which made it possible to divide all the children surveyed into 2 groups. In general, the structure of child sicknesses is presented by the same classes of diseases, which have a different level of prevalence. In overall structure of sickness rate the first 7 ranked places are occupied by the following classes of diseases: respiratory diseases, digestive system, eyes and adnexa, injuries and accidents, some infectious and parasitic diseases, skin and sub-cutaneous tissue diseases, as well as musculoskeletal system [4]. These enumerated classes of diseases account for 81 % of all diseases of children aged between 7 to 10 and 75 % — at the age of 11–14 years. The analysis of chronic disease rate diagnosed in 21.7 % of school children showed its level at 303,8 ‰. A points system was utilized for integrated assessment of the state of health of the family, which is based on distribution of family members into health groups. The proportion of families that received a very good assessment of health amounted to only 15.8 %. Every fourth — fifth family (22.6 %) had good health. A big part of surveyed families (35.9 %) was allocated to families with a satisfactory health assessment. Alarming is the fact that every fourth family was in poor (21.9 %) or very poor (3.8 %) health condition. The study of the health status of examined families in connection with their way of life revealed that among the families referred to the group with a good and very good health, healthy way of life was observed, on average 2.6 times more often in comparison with the group of families with bad and very bad health. Using variance analysis of single-factor systems for quality traits more significant factors of lifestyle affecting the formation of family health have been identified [5]. Leveling of negative and strengthening of positive impact of the mentioned factors is possible at a high level of healthcare activity of the family, which includes the implementation of various relaxation techniques, the ability to remove emotional stress, to change their attitude to stressful situations, to develop a specific arrangement for the nature of nutrition, exercise of hygienic gymnastics, sports, educating on appropriate attitude to procedures of conditioning to the cold, bad habits, visiting the doctor with therapeutic and prophylactic purposes, fulfillment of recommendations of the physician. Comprehensive assessment of medico-social behavior (or medical activity) of the family members having children of school age, has revealed that the majority of families (56.8 %) mostly faced unfavorable values of studied factors and accordingly were allocated to families with low levels of medical activity. Only every third family (37.1 %), in terms of health-social behavior, was allocated to the group with middle-scale level of expression of the studied indicators.
Conclusion:
It has been established that medico-social behavior of families is determined by the level of social and hygienic lifestyle characteristics, correlation dependence between the considered indications made up г=0,461, m=0,0032, р<0,01. In general, in families with high medical activity, the families with high levels of socio-hygienic characteristics of lifestyle are significantly (p <0.0001) often observed than those with low level (41.3 % vs. 1.4 %). Given that medical activity of family is related to factors that facilitate leveling of the negative impact of socio-hygienic factors of lifestyle, in the course of the study the health of families was analyzed taking into account their medico-social behavior. The obtained results demonstrate the leading role of medical activity in shaping the health of families with school-age children.
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