Over the years, transformations have taken place: the names of laboratories have changed, and departments and divisions have been created, but the goals set by Marzieiev have stayed the same.

The laboratory was established in 1949 as a research center and was called the School Hygiene Department.

In the 1960s, it was renamed the Department of Hygiene of Children and Adolescents. From 1949 to 1955, A.G. Popovych headed the department. During this period, scientific developments were carried out to address school construction and equipment issues, substantiate the physiologically optimal mode of study and study loads for schoolchildren, and create favorable conditions for their physical development, health improvement, and hygienic education. 

← The first head of the school hygiene department.

Since 1956, the department has been transformed into a scientific laboratory headed by Doctor of Medical Sciences M.V. Kryzhanivska.

During this period, the team actively studied the problem of schoolchildren’s labor training and the state of children’s physical development in the postwar years.

In 1961, the laboratory was headed by Doctor of Medical Sciences G.I. Yakovenko. 

At this time, the country began to develop a network of sanatoriums and boarding schools for children with health problems, and alongside this, the need arose to study the issues of organizing the conditions and modes of education for this contingent of children. 

The research aimed to develop hygienic standards for the experimental construction of large-capacity urban and small rural schools. Optimal modes of education for children from the age of 6 were developed. A separate area of research was the hygienic study of vocational training in rural vocational schools.

Since 1981, the laboratory has been headed by Candidate of Medical Sciences G.M. Eremenko. 

At that time, a new aspect of research was being developed — a comprehensive study of the impact of environmental factors of chemical and physical nature on children’s health. 

An urgent task was to establish the level of contamination of the territories and premises of children’s institutions with heavy metal compounds and their impact on children’s health. Studies of the psychophysiological status of schoolchildren were further developed. 

Standardized indicators of the main psychophysiological functions of schoolchildren aged 12-15 were developed and published for the first time in Ukraine.

 After the Chornobyl accident, some instructional and methodological documents were developed to regulate the conditions and modes of life of children and adolescents in contaminated areas, and recommendations for health improvement were developed.

Doctor of Medical Sciences N.S. Polka headed the laboratory from 1992 to 2004. The laboratory’s most significant achievements are the scientific developments carried out within the framework of the National Program “Children of Ukraine.” 

Among them are the creation of a database of physical development of preschool and school-age children (from 3 to 17 years), the development of hygienic criteria for the safe use of computer equipment in educational institutions, substantiation of new pedagogical technologies, programs, methods, modes and terms of education of children in different types of general education institutions (in particular, in gymnasiums, lyceums) in the process of modernization of education.

Since 2004, the laboratory has been headed by Candidate of Medical Sciences N.Y. Yatskovska.

Hygienic justification for the use of printed and technical teaching tools, in particular, personal computers, audio, and video equipment, as well as other children’s goods.

Comprehensive study of the influence of internal environment factors of residential, educational, extracurricular, and health facilities on the formation of children’s health.

Development of age standards for psychophysiological development of children to diagnose the level of mental and physical development of children.

Hygienic substantiation of the requirements for creating optimal living conditions and organizing extracurricular activities in computer clubs.

In 2011, Doctor of Medical Sciences A.G. Platonova became the head of the laboratory (Laboratory of the Safety of Children’s Population Vital Functions). 

Priority research in the field of life safety for children:

– substantiation of hygienic requirements for the use of information and communication technologies in educational activities;

– development of accelerated methods for assessing the safety of children’s products;

– assessment of the physical development of preschoolers over the course of a century;

– the safety of teaching tools provided for by the New Ukrainian School education Reform;

– assessment of physical development of adolescents during the military aggression of the Russian Federation.

O.M. Marzieiev:
[“In the postwar period, when it was essential to strengthen the health of children undermined by war and occupation… important issues such as the construction and equipment of schools, school daily routines, academic workloads, physical development, hygiene education… remained without scientific and methodological guidance…”].

Today, Alexander Nikitich’s quote from back in 1949 sounds relevant again!

Scientists are once again faced with the problems of post-war reconstruction of the state and the issue of preserving and improving children’s health, which has been depleted by the consequences of full-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation.

Ensure children’s livelihoods is a scientific issue not only of the professional laboratory of the Institute but also of the Laboratory of the Social Determinants of Population Health, the Laboratory of Epidemiology of Non-Infectious Diseases and Medical Informatics, the Laboratory of Nutrition Hygiene and Safety of Food Products, the Laboratory of Hygiene for Planning and Construction of Settlements, etc.