One of the criteria for the well-being of the state and society is the health of the younger generation. Today, one can observe a deterioration in most indicators of the health status of children of different ages. Along with a decrease in the birth rate, an increase in infant mortality, an increase in the number of children with disabilities and patients with chronic pathologies, this serves as an alarming signal about the threat to national security.
The causes of this situation are: socio-economic instability, environmental situation, low sanitary literacy and medical activity of the population, reform of the healthcare system and education, and others.
The concept of health implies a state of complete psychological and socio-biological well-being, the normal functioning of all organs, and the absence of diseases. An initial comprehensive assessment of children's health is carried out at a very young age. It is established not only the presence of certain diseases, but also the likelihood of their occurrence.
Today, doctors, using certain indicators, distinguish the following groups of children's health :
1st group. It includes healthy children who have mental and physical development appropriate for their age. They lack morphofunctional and functional abnormalities.
2nd group. These are children who have some morphological and functional abnormalities, a low level of immunoresistance of the body, who have suffered severe infectious diseases, which are often ill.
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the size of this group of children's health. Infants, as a rule, suffer from allergies, functional abnormalities in the blood. At an early age, eating disorders are often found. For preschool children, deviations in the respiratory, nervous, urinary systems, ENT organs and musculoskeletal system are characteristic.
Problems with the cardiovascular system usually occur at school age. To these can be added a deterioration in the functioning of the organs of vision, which is associated with adaptation to educational activities.
3rd group. It includes children suffering from chronic diseases at the stage of remission. Today, there is a tendency to increase the size of this group of children's health.
4th group. Chronic diseases children in the stage of subcompensation.
5th group. Children with disabilities and diseases at the stage of decompensation.
Children's health groups are determined by the district pediatrician. If there are more than two diseases, the assessment is made according to the most difficult. If a child has several serious illnesses, each of which gives reason to attribute it to the 3rd group, then the 4th health group is put.
The determination of children's health groups is important in a timely manner. This is especially true of the 2nd group. Such children require regular medical examinations and physical condition monitoring. Otherwise, existing diseases may worsen.