Changes in Morphological Characteristics During the Period 2005-2014 in a Sample of Serbian 7-Year-Old Children

Morphological characteristics of children commonly imply the processes of growth and development. Information on children's growth in height and their body weight is often used as the indicator of the children's health and nutritional status. As the parameters are changeable both temporally and spatially, it is important to provide their continual assessment. The aim of the study is to investigate the changes in morphological characteristics in a sample of Serbian 7-year-old children in the period 2005 -2014. The data was gathered from medical documentation recorded in the period 2005-2014 in the local health-care centre "Dr Dusan Savic-Doda" in Beocin, which is situated in the central part of the province Vojvodina, the north-west part of Serbia. Most of the population consists of Serbs (69.7 %), and the second largest group are Roma (9 %) who came to this region in the 1990s as refugees from Kosovo. The categorization of the participants was based on their decimal age ranging from 6.50 to 7.49 years. Body height and weight were measured, and nutritional status categories were set in relation to the cut off values of body mass index (BMI) of the age of 7 (kg/ m(2)) as proposed by IOTF-International Obesity Task Force. The study has pointed to an increasing trend in height and a decrease of BMI. Analysing the period of ten years, the height, weight and BMI in seven-year-olds living on the territory on Beocin municipality have proven to be slightly lower than in the children of the same age in other parts of Vojvodina and Serbia. The obtained results point to the need of further investigations of children living in this region in order to provide a better insight into the changes of the morphological parameters.