Determinants of health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the expediency of implementing intersectoral interaction on public health protection in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic with an impact on health determinants that haven’t been sufficiently studied. The aim of the work is to study the list and significance of health determinants in the conditions of a pandemic of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Material and methods. An expert survey of forty nine healthcare managers was conducted. The criteria for the selection of experts included management experience in the field of health protection, the level of self-assessment of competence, and congruence of opinions. The list and significance of determinants of health in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic were compared with the data obtained before its occurrence. Results. The list of health determinants that are sufficiently significant for the COVID-19 pandemic was established to include the same 37 factors as without it. However, important differences were identified. The significance of most determinants of health (64.9%) in a pandemic exceeds the borderline level of 7.0 points on a 10-point scale, that is, significant (without a pandemic - 16.2%). At the same time, priority factors determining the health of the population are widely represented in all groups of determinants and among non-group ones (without a pandemic - only in the “Lifestyle” group and “heredity” determinant). The consequence was that during a pandemic, the significance of 70.3% of the determinants of health statistically significantly exceeds that of the same factors without it, the opposite picture was recorded only in relation to 5.4% of the factors (the rest don’t differ). Limitations. In the study of the determinants of health in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opinion of healthcare managers whose quantitative and qualitative parameters meet the requirements for experts was evaluated. Conclusion. The data obtained expand the understanding of the scientific apparatus for implementing health-saving activities in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.