Hygiene of children and adolescents is a part of preventive medicine that studies the influence of environmental factors and children's activities on the health and functional state of growing organism. Specialists in this industry develop scientific foundations and provide preventive guidelines to ensure optimal growth and favorable development of pediatric population.
The main task of hygiene of children and adolescents is the targeted beneficial effects of the environment and upbringing on the formation of a healthy person, improving their functional and physical states.
The WHO European Strategy for child and adolescent health and development (2005) states: «Children are our investment in tomorrow's society. Their health and the way in which we nurture them through adolescence into adulthood will affect the prosperity and stability of countries in the European Region over the coming decades».
9.1. FEATURES OF THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE CHILD'S BODY
The growth and development of children, their state of health are of great social and medical importance as they serve as a serious indicator of the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population as a whole.
In general, biological significance of growth is to achieve the level of development of the body that is necessary for human reproductive, intellectual and social perfection. Growth and development are usually used as identical concepts intimately associated with each other. Meanwhile, their biological nature and mechanisms are different.
Growth processes lead to the appearance of quantitative differences in structures and function of developing organism, while development processes determine a qualitative transformation in morphological structure and organization of physiological systems functioning.