Parental behavioral risk factors for preschoolers’ health: the experience of cohort regional monitoring

In Russia, given the ongoing depopulation, it is especially relevant to search for and mitigate risk factors for children’s health and to identify ways to protect it in order to preserve reproductive, intellectual, labor and human potential. The aim of the study is to identify risk factors for children’s health by assessing the relationship between some aspects of parental behavior and lifestyle and adverse health outcomes for children. The study object is preschool children in the Vologda region. Information base is represented by selected personal data of two waves of cohort monitoring. Informants are parents, neonatologists and pediatricians. The applied methodology includes inter- and intra-cohort methods of sociological analysis; calculation of relative health risks for children aged 0–6 years influenced by various parental behavioral patterns including their reproductive attitudes. The study has revealed that a balanced diet of the mother during pregnancy is a protective factor for health of her unborn child. Manageable risk factors in five spheres include the following: (1) reproductive attitudes, unplanned pregnancy; (2) eating behavior, obesity of the expectant mother; lack of meat, cheese, fruits and fishin her diet; delayed latching of the newborn to the breast; refusal to breastfeed; frequent consumption of sweets and offal by the mother; insufficient introduction of vegetables and fruits into the child's diet; (3) bad habits, smoking and the loyal attitude of parents to alcohol, alcohol misuse by the father; (4) medical literacy and activity, the man's refusal to take vitamins in preparation for conception; the woman's late registration for pregnancy; failure to comply with the instructions of an obstetrician-gynecologist and pediatrician, lack of knowledge about caring for a sick child; (5) forming children's physical activity skills and increasing immunity, a lack of massage, hardening, and insufficient time spent by the child in open air. Based on these findings, recommendations are proposed on how to organize interdepartmental interaction at all levels of health management for children.