Unhealthy living conditions
Not only life expectancy is important, but also its quality
Comprehensive monitoring of the living conditions of the population was carried out pursuant to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 946 dated November 27, 2010 "On the organization in the Russian Federation of a system of federal statistical observations on socio-demographic problems and monitoring of economic losses from mortality, morbidity and disability of the population".
The task of conducting a comprehensive monitoring of the living conditions of the population is to obtain statistical data on the professional and personal motivations of the population's participation in work, on the level of ensuring social protection rights and social service needs, on the quality of housing and living conditions and intentions to improve them, on the availability of information and communication tools that promote intellectual development, on the use of services and satisfaction with the work of institutions of the social sphere and transport, about the safety of industrial and non-industrial spheres of living, about the reasons for restrictions in meeting vital needs.
Olga Antonova , Head of the Population and Health Statistics Department of the Federal State Statistics Service , said the following about the new quality of life criteria:
– The state of health of the population of the country is adequate to such an indicator as the expected continuation of the upcoming life, i.e. how long a born person will live on average. In recent years, the indicator of life expectancy has increased. According to preliminary data, the average duration is 71 years (68 years – men, 75 years – women). But it is still significantly lower than the life expectancy of the population of developed countries. As they say, there is something to strive for.
In many European countries and international organizations, on the basis of average life expectancy, they began to introduce such an indicator as the duration of a healthy life. When calculating it, the indicators of both mortality and morbidity are concentrated.
We can say that until now our Russian statistics did not have such information, in any case, the Ministry of Health did not have such data. Due to the fact that a system of indicators of socio-demographic survey has now been created, we are able to calculate the duration of a healthy life.
Based on the comprehensive studies conducted by Rosstat, it is possible to see the effect of the measures taken, plan upcoming actions that will contribute to the development of healthcare and the adoption of cardinal steps in this area. The indicators, which were obtained for the first time on the basis of a comprehensive study, will allow creating a calculation system within the framework of the national project "Health".
We have a high mortality rate from smoking and alcohol consumption. This is included in such a factor as external causes of death, which is in third place after cardiovascular diseases and oncology. And respiratory diseases are now in fifth place after digestive diseases.
All world statistics have switched to a sample survey, and it is good that the same methodology has appeared in Russia.
Deputy Head of Rosstat Konstantin Laikam said:
– At the time of the statistical survey, 44% of respondents said they needed medical care. These were mainly ailments and colds (20%). Then there were exacerbations of chronic diseases (15%), less often – the need for long-term medical supervision (4.4%) and rehabilitation treatment (3.6%).
To the question "Who provides you with medical care?" 73% answered that the attending physician. Another 2.5% said they went to a doctor they knew, 16 – to family and friends, 5 – to a nurse and 13% were treated independently. We see that the total is more than 100% – it's just that people use several opportunities at the same time.
In 2011, 11% of respondents called an ambulance. The average waiting time for an ambulance is 24 minutes. Interestingly, this indicator does not depend on the type of settlement. A quarter of respondents said that they waited for the car from 20 to 40 minutes, and 3% waited for more than an hour – which causes us legitimate perplexity.
Almost half of the population needs dental care. But only 31% of citizens and a quarter of rural residents turn to a doctor, most often to state medical institutions. 61% of respondents paid for dental services, and 27 did not pay (beneficiaries, patients of departmental polyclinics and those with friendly ties).
31% of respondents smoke. Another 7% smoked before, but quit. There are a lot of smokers in the country: more than half a pack a day – 60%, more than a pack – every tenth. There are significantly more men who smoke than women – 55 and 14%, respectively. Among men who have lived up to 70 years, smoking is half. Only 1.5% of women over the age of 70 smoke. The conclusion suggests itself: non-smokers live up to 70 years more often than smokers.
Interestingly, the proportion of non-smoking men is highest among managers and specialists of the highest qualification level (about 40%). The same pattern can be seen among women. Working conditions strongly influence the prevalence of smoking. The harder and more dangerous the work, the more smokers.
38% of the population over the age of 15 said that they do not drink alcoholic beverages at all. Another 5% said that they use extremely rarely. Such a high percentage of teetotallers may, of course, surprise, but we know that many respondents answer such questions, somewhat embellishing reality.
There are not so many non–drinking men - 26%. Women look more dignified – almost half do not even drink beer. There are fewer teetotallers in the city than in the village – 35% versus 47. Most often they drink beer, then (half as often) there is vodka, then wine (about three times less than vodka).
Among men who drink, almost 3% admitted that they drink daily, 11 – several times a week, 22 – once a week, 26 – up to twice a month, 35 – only on holidays and 3% – extremely rarely.
Women find a reason to drink three to four times less often than men. But, unfortunately, there are unpleasant phenomena here too. For example, we found out that more than one percent of girls aged 16-19 drink beer almost every day. This is three times higher than in other age categories, and does not differ much from the same indicator in young men of the same age. And we all need to think hard about this, as well as about the rest of the noted facts.
On the whole, people responded quite well about their state of health. And although few people rated their health as "very good" – only 3% of the population, as "good" – already 35, as "satisfactory" – 51%. 10% called their health "bad" and 1% called it "very bad". Then what kind of "health" is it?
Men are satisfied with their health more often than women: 45% of men and 33% of women consider their health to be good and very good, and, conversely, 8% of men and 13% of women consider their health to be bad and very bad.
Perhaps such self-esteem is also connected with the fact that, firstly, women are more responsible about their health, and secondly, they are more frank in answering this question.
Of course, the assessment of health strongly depends on the age of the respondent. Young people (from 16 to 29 years old) have a significantly higher self-esteem of health. Almost three quarters of young people, half of people of working age and only 7% older than able-bodied rated their health as good and very good.
If you look at the type of settlements, the townspeople assess their health better than the villagers: 40% have good and very good health in the city, and 35% in the village.
There are also clear differences in the groups of classes: managers have very good health one and a half times more often than the rest. It is better for qualified specialists than for unskilled ones. Only 2% of unskilled workers rate their health as "very good" against 4.6% of managers at all levels of government.
A clear relationship between the state of health and working conditions has been revealed. More than half of the respondents who have a completely safe job rated their health as very good and good. But among respondents with dangerous work, less than 40% can boast of such health. Conversely, 5% of respondents with dangerous work have poor and very poor health, and only 3% have completely safe work. We see an absolutely similar picture when we compare light and very heavy work (in the sense of physical exertion).
Among the working people, 3.3% have serious health problems on average, and 5.5% among the unemployed.
Among citizens who are not employed in the economy, students have the best indicators (only 1% complained about their health condition) and women who are on parental leave. But non-working pensioners are doing the worst: a third of them have serious health problems.
As objective data, 8% of respondents reported that they have one or another disability group. Almost a third of the population has chronic diseases. Men are again less demanding about their health – only one in four of them indicated the presence of chronic diseases, while women talked about it more often (36%). It is important to note a fairly high percentage of young people with chronic diseases – 13%. An interesting detail: workers of agriculture, forestry, and fish farming have chronic diseases less often than others.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru30.10.2012