Arztliche Jugendkunde最新文献

A review is given of structures, organization, function, and contemporary problems of preventive health care for children in Sweden. The importance of health education for their parents is emphasized.

By extensive investigations and statistical calculations it is possible to establish the psychophysical prerequisites for performance, which consist of "mental processing speed" and "vegetative reactivity". These can be developed by training and thus contribute to improved mental performance.

This article intends to describe the present state and development of the psychophysical state of health of GDR graduates. Special attention is given to various quantities influencing the state of health, above all job-related determinants. The empirical basis is an interval study, carried out by the Zentralinstitut für Jugendforschung Leipzig; this study registered and attended hundred of people from the beginning of their studies in 1970 during the following 15 years in seven intervals. Preferably social factors and determinants were studied empirically and partly problematical interrelations between health and working conditions and contents as well as critical development trends of health were pointed out. In this way important starting points for taking measures to influence exogene health determinants were fixed: especially questions of working contents, of correct appointment of graduates corresponding to their profession and qualification, of a permanent training of psycho-physical capabilities.

On the basis of several representative research findings of the Central Institute of Youth Research the drinking habits of young people are described. Besides the frequency of drinking, the weekly overall consumption of alcohol, the consumption of different kinds of alcoholic beverages as well as the combinations preferred were ascertained. A habitual daily alcohol intake of more than 40 g of pure alcohol was found among one fifth of the male workers up to the age of 35 and among 14 per cent of the male apprentices, but only among three per cent of the male intellectuals. We analyzed the conditions which encourage the abuse of alcohol on the societal and individual level as well as within social groups, and thus derived some conclusions for the prevention of alcohol abuse among adolescents. An effective reduction in the abuse of alcohol can--in the long term--only be achieved by a wide range of societal measures. The first step is to make the population more aware of the problems resulting from the abuse of alcohol.

More home visits should be made in the context of prophylactic care for children up to three years of age, in order to come to grips with problems of child development likely to results from the inadequate knowledge and experience of parents and to promote age-adjusted motivation for the undisturbed development of their children. In this sense home visits can be an effective approach to primary prevention and a contribution to harmonious development in childhood. The priorities of counselling and their content are subject to change, depending on the age and development of the children involved. Examples are given of age-adjusted stimulation of development for one-year-old children. They are based on results of empirical investigations conducted between 1984 and 1987.

Data from parish registers have been used to estimate the menarcheal age during the 17th and 18th centuries in a village population which lies in a part of the northern lower reaches of the Harz mountains. The results, obtained by using a formula developed by the author, agree with information obtained from authors of the 17th and 18th centuries. Data from the literature on the age of menarche and marriage from the classical period up to the present time are being reviewed and evaluated. The basic observation is that the longterm fluctuations of menarcheal age run concurrently with changes in the food resources available during the respective time spans.

The body mass and body length of 84 boys and 91 girls were investigated from birth up to the age of three years. From these data growth charts were drawn up. The development of body mass and body length related to chronological age, on the one hand, and the development of body mass related to body length, on the other hand. were set out. The growth charts are recommended as standards for reference purposes.

The involvement of trained laity (pupils) in the standardized measurement of blood pressure may be a further step in the total fight against hypertension. During a period of four school years 152 of 205 pupils successfully completed a training course for standardized measurement. These well trained pupils serve as promotors (multipliers) of health educational know how and attitudes among adolescents of the same age. In this way health education by pupils for pupils may be furthered.