Healthy children – guarantee of the national prosperity
Proper dietary habits and understanding of a healthy lifestyle are instilled in Turkmenistan since childhood. This is evidenced by the data of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI).
Now, the Initiative is holding the fourth round of collecting indicators to monitor childhood obesity, which involves 35 member-countries of the WHO European region, including Turkmenistan.
COSI involves taking standardized weight and height measurements from over 300 000 children at the age of 6-9 across the WHO European Region, providing nationally representative data for participating countries, as well as a large Region-wide data set for analysis of the determinants of childhood overweight and obesity. This vital collaboration between WHO/Europe and research institutions from across the Region provides high-quality data to inform policy and practice to respond to the problem of childhood overweight and obesity.
Preliminary data for 300,000 children in the WHO European region for 2015-2017 have already been posted on the official website of the organization. The data taken as the basis of the report were collected through a national representative data and standardized methods for measuring weight and height.
For Turkmenistan, data are provided for the age group 7-8 years, taking into account both official data from national structures and on the basis of surveys among parents.
The conclusions are the following:
• According to the section Eating Habits, 90% of young Turkmen people have breakfast every day.
• 70% and 68% of children in Turkmenistan consume fruits and vegetables daily, respectively.
• However, with savoury snacks, the situation is different – 54% of children consume them never or less than once a week.
• Soft drinks containing sugar are popular, but 42% drink them more than three days a week, and 34% - never or less than once a week.
Pleasantly impressive situation is in terms of physical activity of Turkmen children:
• 80% of schoolchildren aged 7-8 years in Turkmenistan prefer going to and from school by walking. It should be noted a well-thought-out policy of the education system - schools, where students are distributed by districts, are within walking distance.
• 81% of children spend at least an hour on weekdays and 92% - on weekends – playing actively – running, jumping and fitness games inside.
• 73% of children attend sports clubs and dancing courses, spending at least two hours a week.
Along with this activity, sleep duration is well adjusted. On average, young citizens of Turkmenistan in this age group sleep 9-10 hours, which, in principle, corresponds to the norm.
Turkmenistan has the lowest rates of childhood obesity in the WHO European region – 4% for boys and 2% for girls.
Thus, the statistics of the largest global organization for health protection eloquently prove that a healthy and active young generation is growing in Turkmenistan. And this is the real wealth, allowing to be confident in the future.
