Самооценка здоровья и самосохранительное поведение сельских жителей и дачников Костромской области

Электронный научный журнал "Социальные аспекты здоровья населения". 2015. № 3.

Nikolayuk E. A.

Health self-assessment of the Russian population is lower compared to self-assessments in many developed countries. Rural dwellers tend to assess their health status worse than urban residents. This is mainly due to low self-protective behavior, low individual responsibility for their health that is manifested in the relevant self-protective behavior of rural dwellers. The purpose of the work is to find reasons for different health conditions and life expectancy between rural dwellers and summer (urban) residents in Kostroma Region.

The analysis is based on data of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP, 2011) and in-depth interviews collected in summer 2014 in Ugorsky district, Kostroma region.

Statistics shows that life expectancy of rural and urban population differs: according to the Federal State Statistics Service data for 2013, life expectancy at birth of rural males was 1.89 years lower and for rural females – 1.57 lower compared to urban males and females correspondingly. Among other things this gap in life expectancy is due to different health status of rural and urban population. Qualitative data helped to understand main reasons for different health status of urban (summer residents) and rural dwellers in Kostroma region.

Prevalence of self-treatment, untimely application for medical advice, unbalanced diet, smoking and alcohol abuse – all these things combined with limited access to quality health care negatively affect health status of rural dwellers. However, there is a tendency towards better self-protective behavior among younger rural dwellers compare to the older rural population.

Keywords: здоровье, health, городское население, сельское население, самосохранительное поведение, ожидаемая продолжительность жизни при рождении, life expectancy at birth, vital behavior

Publication based on the results of: Demographic trends in Russia and in the OECD countries: comparative analysis and implications for policy (2015)