Social and epidemiologic determinants and potential for growth in life expectancy of the population in the Russian Federation taking into account regional differentiation

Abstract

The current work supplements the results obtained in previous research on a relation between leading parameters of living conditions and life expectancy of the RF population; it dwells on the results obtained via analyzing a role played by sanitary and epidemiologic determinants. A sanitary-epidemiologic situation in certain RF regions is unfavorable and it makes our research truly vital; it is also necessary to work out and implement activities aimed at eliminating or minimizing adverse environmental factors that can produce negative effects on demographic situation in the country. Our primary goal was to study impacts exerted by sanitary-epidemiologic parameters on life expectancy in the RF and to obtain predicted values for its growth taking into account regional and sex differentiation. We examined domestic and foreign experience in researching relations between sanitary-epidemiologic welfare and life expectancy. All the RF regions were distributed into three clusters as per their sanitary-epidemiologic welfare. The third cluster that includes 11 regions is in much greater need for implementing activities aimed at reducing environmental contamination. Results obtained via regression and factor analysis revealed that should there be a scenario with an improvement in sanitary-epidemiologic parameters (by 10.0 %), the overall life expectancy for the RF population would increase by 140.39 days. An improvement in sanitary-epidemiologic situation taken as per sex differentiation indicated that a greater impact was expected on life expectancy growth among male population, as it would increase by 146.9 days (by 117.6 days for female population). We established that several parameters made the greatest contribution into life expectancy growth; they were “A share of population provided with high quality drinking water” (61.65 days); “Physical factors existing at workplaces” (35.83 days), “Sanitary-hygienic characteristics of objects under surveillance” (15.16 days), and “Sanitary-epidemiologic parameters of ambient air” (14.26 days). The current work does not cover extreme sanitary-epidemiologic situations related to pandemic spread of new infectious agents causing highly contagious diseases (Coronavirus infection).

Keywords

• life expectancy
• sanitary-epidemiologic factors
• environment
• demographic policy
• population
• life quality
• factor analysis