UN Report on Human Development in Russia
The UN has found the reasons for the increase in morbidity in Russia
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The morbidity of the able-bodied population and its mortality are growing in Russia, writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta with reference to the UN report on human development in Russia. The report, which was presented at the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation, reports that living conditions are deteriorating in the country by many indicators.
Questioning the data of official statistics, experts suggested that this is due to a serious underfunding of the healthcare system, which was previously expressed by the chairman of the National Medical Chamber Leonid Roshal and the head of the Ministry of Health Veronika Skvortsova.
"The mortality rate of the population is decreasing, but it is still significantly higher than the mortality rate achieved today in the EU countries (by 1.4 times). Mortality is especially high in the working age. The probability of dying at the age of 15-60 in Russia is almost twice as high as the average in Europe," said Sergey Shishkin, co–author of the report, research director of the HSE Institute of Health Economics.
Experts also point to a reduction in the working life of men. According to them, "in the working age range in 1990, on average, every man lived 40.6 out of 45 potential years of life. Thus, the average loss of years of life per man was 4.4 years. In 2010, the loss of years of life was 20% higher and amounted to 5.3 years."
In addition, there has been an increase in mortality in Russia due to so–called avoidable causes - from diseases that could have been prevented (diseases of the digestive and respiratory organs, infectious and parasitic diseases).
According to the report, the incidence in our country has been growing for two decades, since the 90s. And only in 2010 it was possible to weaken this trend. At the same time, the Ministry of Health explains the increase in morbidity rates by improving diagnostics. But then, as the speakers emphasize, statistics would change due to primary diseases, but the overall incidence is still growing. The speakers believe that this indicates that the diseases of Russians are passing into a chronic stage. According to a population survey, 46% of Russian residents over the age of 15 have some kind of chronic disease.
Meanwhile, the official statistical reports of the relevant departments cause great doubts among international experts. The authors of the report believe that they do not reflect the real picture of morbidity. Thus, the prevalence of hypertension in 2010 among people of retirement age, according to the Ministry of Health, was only 21.7%, according to epidemiological studies – about 40%, and the World Health Organization cites even more serious data – high blood pressure was detected in 62.5% of people over 50 years old.
"The amount of state funding and the policy pursued in the healthcare sector are insufficient to solve the accumulated problems," the speakers concluded.
Recall that at the end of January this year, the Ministry of Economic Development announced that by 2020 Russia plans to spend 27 trillion rubles on the development of healthcare (an average of 4.2 percent of GDP per year). Among the priorities of the state program "Development of Healthcare" are disease prevention, healthy lifestyle formation and sanatorium treatment of citizens; maternal and child health protection, development of medical rehabilitation, introduction of innovative methods of diagnosis and treatment, improvement of specialized and high–tech care, as well as solving the problem of shortage of personnel in healthcare.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru23.05.2013