Health Characteristics of the Working Age Population of the Siberian Federal Okrug

Abstract

ABSTRACT The share of Russia’s working age population is gradually decreasing. According to the forecasts, in 2026, the total population will have decreased by 4.3 percent, and the working age population will have decreased by 16.4 percent. This will reduce its share in the age structure to 55.1 percent (in 2008, it was 63.2 percent). For this reason, the health of these citizens, cause of death analyses, and measures to reduce mortality acquire particular importance. The goal of this research is to study the status, dynamics, and characteristic features of morbidity, including occupational morbidity, and causes of death of the working age population of the Siberian Federal Okrug (SFO). Drawing on an analysis of the morbidity and mortality literature with respect to working age people in the SFO and Russia, as well as on the statistical data of the regional health authorities of the SFO, the authors concluded that the health of Siberia’s working age population is noticeably worse than the Russian average. In this case, morbidity, both for the first diagnosis and overall morbidity, continues to grow. Mortality is decreasing over time, but the decrease is slower than for the country as a whole. Therefore, for seven years, the mortality of the SFO has lagged the all-Russian value by an increasing amount, from 14.8 to 17.25 percent. The mortality structure shows the increased influence (relative to the Russian Federation as a whole) of external causes such as murder, suicide, poisoning by alcohol substitutes, and others. Despite the sizable decrease in the number of fatal accidents at the workplace (per 1000 people), the SFO’s indicator is only outrunning that of the Far Eastern and Volga Federal Okrugs.