Practice of research in mortality of the persons, which was children on the moment of accident on Chornobyl NPP and lived on the most radioactive contaminated territories of Ukraine

Abstract

Introduction. Previous studies have revealed a fairly high level of premature mortality of the population in radioactive contaminated territories (RCT) of Ukraine, which led to the feasibility of further studies of children's health at the time of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident (subjects born in 1968–1986) on mortality. Objective: to investigate retrospectively the mortality rate of subjects who were children during the CNPP accident and lived in 1986–2011 on the most radiation contaminated territories of Ukraine (Ivankivsky and Polissky districts of Kyiv region and Narodytsky and Ovrutsky districts of Zhytomyr region). Materials and methods. The combination of information bases of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine made it possible to form a study cohort (more than 31 thousand people who at the time of the CNPP accident were 0–17 years old and they lived in Ivankivsky, Polissky, Narodytsky and Ovrutsky districts) and collect anonymized information about 2.1 thousand deaths for 1986–2011. The control was the population of Ukraine of the corresponding age. Variables were calculated in accordance with the recommendations on population statistics. Documentary analysis, theoretical, general scientific, demographic, mathematical, statistical, software-technological and graphic (using the Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel software package) research methods were applied. Results. For the first time, the methodological and practical issues of studying the differentiation of mortality in subjects born in 1968–1986 who lived in the RCT in 1986-2011 were worked out. Average chronological mortality rate for 1986–2011 for the cohort in RHT was (2.26 ± 0.37) ‰, in Ukraine – (1.74 ± 0.74) ‰. There was revealed a significant excess of mortality rates inn RTH in comparison with the population of the country and men in comparison with women. It was established that the studied cohort potentially lost 82.3 thousand years of life over 26 years. In premature mortality, the leading role (50.4%) belonged to exogenous causes, 43.1 % – to somatic pathology, 6.55 % – to symptoms, signs and vaguely defined conditions. The average age of death for both sexes is (27.7 ± 0.11) years, for men – (28.2 ± 0.12) years, for women – (25.9 ± 0.23) years. Conclusions. In terms of mortality rates, the state of health of subjects who were children at the time of the CNPP accident and lived in 1986–2011 in the most radiation contaminated territories of the country is recognized as worse than the population of Ukraine of the corresponding age. Key words: radioactive contaminated territories, children on the moment of accident on Chernobyl NPP, mortality.