Environmental factors affecting the mortality of population in Odesa Region

Abstract

The presented research covers a significant part of the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and studies the role of environmental factors in formation of population mortality from main causes. The main causes of mortality among the population of Odesa Region during the studied period include diseases of circulatory system, COVID-19, neoplasms, external causes, diseases of digestive organs and diseases of respiratory organs. The aforesaid causes constitute 94-95% of all causes of mortality in Odesa Region. However, out of these six classes of diseases, only diseases of circulatory system, COVID-19 and diseases of respiratory organs and some of their nosological forms have simultaneous peaks in mortality, during which mortality of the Odesa Region population from all causes almost doubles. Over time, there is a certain redistribution of frequency of the causes of mortality among the six main causing diseases of the population`s mortality in the region. But this does not explain occurrence of simultaneous peaks in mortality from diseases of circulatory system, COVID-19, and diseases of respiratory organs. Formation of simultaneous peaks in mortality from non-infectious and infectious diseases cannot be explained by the influence of social or anthropogenic factors. This indicates the need to address a number of environmental factors of natural origin – meteorological, biometeorological and heliocosmic. The study shows the possibility of an existing linear statistical connection between these environmental factors and the mortality of the Odesa Region population from such classes of diseases as diseases of circulatory system, COVID-19 and diseases of respiratory organs, as well as the relevant nosological forms. The results of the correlation analysis between mortality rates from major diseases and the environmental factors studied showed weak correlations between them. It is fully consistent with the World Health Organization's view of the role of environmental conditions in shaping public health.