Development of standards for the biological development in children for various subjects of the Russian Federation

Introduction. The characteristics of the physical development in children include an assessment of their morphofunctional development and biological age (compliance with the passport age, lagging behind and ahead of them), which is necessary to determine the child’s health group. At the same time, updated standards are needed to assess the child’s biological age.

The aim of the study. To study the growth indices in the child population in various subjects of the Russian Federation for the development of biological development standards.

Material and methods. The analytical study was conducted. The following databases were analyzed: “Physical development in children, adolescents, and youth in the Russian Federation in 2000–2021”, “Physical development in children, adolescents, and youth in the Russian Federation in 2021–2023”, “Trend in physical development in the child population in the regions of the Russian Federation depending on demographic and socio-economic factors since 1970s to 2020s”. Observations of the physical and biological development of 330,872 boys and 321,357 girls, aged 7–17 years living in 79 regions, obtained in 2021–2024 were selected. The data were compared with historical indices established in the 1970s (78,008 observations). Standard statistical data processing was performed using the Statistica 13.0 package.

Results. The biological development in children and adolescents in the regions of the Russian Federation was found to occur at different rates, there are “regional scenarios”. All regions are classified into three categories. The first group includes 15 regions with an accelerated rate – the first growth crossover occurs at 10 years and the second growth crossover at 13 years. The second group consists of 54 regions with children and adolescent’s growth and develop at average rate – the first crossover at 11 years and the second crossover at 14 years. And the third group includes 10 regions with a slower rate – the first crossover at 12 years and the second crossover at 14 years.

Limitations. Insufficient volume or complete absence of data for a number of Russian Federation regions is a limitation of the study.

Conclusion. Standards for biological development have been developed for children and adolescents aged of 7–17 years for 54 subjects of the Russian Federation, in which children and adolescents grow and develop at an average rate.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was approved by the local ethical committee of the N.I. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (meeting protocol No. 239 dated April 15, 2024) and the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association (as amended 2013) was carried out.

Contribution:
Popov V.I. – conceptualization, general supervision, editing;
Skoblina N.A. – methodology, validation, investigation;
Milushkina O.Yu. – methodology, writing text, editing;
Fedotov D.M. – formal analysis, writing text, review, editing;
Ivanov M.S. – formal analysis, writing text, review, editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: March 16, 2025 / Revised: April 2, 2025 / Accepted: June 26, 2025 / Published: September 25, 2025

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