title: [Changes in the anthropometric characteristics of neonatal infants and in the reproductive behavior of the indigenous population of Chukotka].
abstract: The anthropometric characteristics of neonatal infants from the Chukotka indigenous population, age of onset of sexual behavior, and maternal age at first birth were assessed from the records available in 257 labor histories. According to the WHO criteria, physical development was rated as satisfactory in a 2000-2003 neonatal cohort. Birth weight and head and chest circumferences in the neonates were significantly lower than those in a 1967-1970 one. The proportion of babies who had birth weight less than 2500 was 97 per thousand, which was higher than the average value in the Russian Federation and than that of the indigenous population of Alaska and Canada. By the early 2000s versus 1990, reproductive behavioral changes in the native women of Chukotka were exhibited by an average 17-month decrease in age of onset of sexual behavior to 16.9 and 17.26 years in females living in the settlements and villages, respectively. In the meantime, the mean female age at first birth did not differ from that for a group of traditional lifestyle (18-19 years), but the dispersion of the indicator was on the rise. As a result, the proportion of parturients among the Chukchi girls aged 17 years or younger was 2-4 times (according to the place of residence) greater than the total Russian value.
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Vershubskaia
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Kozlov
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000413:Alaska; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000266:history; D001110:Arctic Regions; D044466:Asian People; D001724:Birth Weight; D002170:Canada; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008019:Life Style; D008423:Maternal Age; D011247:Pregnancy; D043762:Reproductive Behavior; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012800:Siberia / Q000208:ethnology; D014944:World Health Organization; D055815:Young Adult