Analysis of the health status of children of the first year of life

Abstract

Ukraine entered the 21^st century with one of the worst vital signs in Europe and the burden of many socio-economic and demographic problems. Adverse quantitative and especially qualitative indicators of population reproduction have become stable. Therefore, the most important medical and social task and one of the main activities of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine is the formation and maintenance of public health. The defining stage in the formation of human health is the first year of life.

Purpose — to study the state and trends of changes in the main indicators of the health of children in the first year of life for the period 2000–2019.

Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of the incidence of children in the first year of life, infant mortality, over the past 20 years in the context of individual pathological conditions is carried out. The information base of the study was the data of state and industry statistics for 2000–2019. Methods of a systematic approach, statistical data processing, epidemiological analysis of graphic images were used.

Results. The study revealed that the unfavorable demographic situation in Ukraine is accompanied by an unsatisfactory state of the main predictors of a healthy start in the life of infants, the formation and maintenance of their health. Over the past two decades, there has been a high level with a negative trend of diseases of the reproductive system of women, a high frequency of the combination of pregnancy and extragenital diseases remains. There is a negative trend towards an increase in the generalized objective criterion of the health of the generation, which is born and the socio-economic well-being of the population — the frequency of premature, low birth weight, incl. With very low birth weight. Only thanks to the introduction of modern medical organizational technologies with proven efficiency in the activities of the maternal and child health service was it possible to achieve a decrease in the incidence of newborns from 280.8 per 1000 live births in 2000 up to 172.14 in 2019. At the same time, the increase in the incidence of newborns with diseases that have a direct impact on the development of chronic and disabling diseases at all stages of life is of concern — congenital pneumonia, neonatal sepsis, other disorders of the cerebral status of the newborn, neonatal jaundice. According to the assessment of the dynamics of the general morbidity of children in the first year of life, its level is still high, with a positive trend — 2018.8 per 1000 children who reached 1 year in 2000 and 1393.1 in 2019, the growth rate is -30.9% with a traditionally leading position in the level and structure of the incidence of respiratory diseases — 810.2 per 1000 children who have reached one year of life and 58.15%, certain conditions occurring in perinatal period — 126.7 ‰ and 9.06%, diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue — 63.9‰ and 4.59%, diseases of the blood and hematopoietic organs and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism — 63.0‰ and 4.52%.

Conclusions. The positive dynamics of morbidity in children of the first year of life is confirmed by a decrease in infant mortality from its maximum level of 11.9 per 1000 live births in 2000 up to 7.0 in 2019, the growth rate is -41.2% due to all its components with a more intensive reduction in postneonatal mortality from 5.28‰ to 2.57‰, the growth rate is -51.3% against the background of an increase in the concentration of mortality in the neonatal period from 55.9% to 64.5%, respectively.