Health and disease in Russia: economic and social factors

¶ … health and disease in Russia. There are four references used for this paper.

Countries around the world are influenced by a number of factors. It is important to look at Russia and analyze the health and diseases there, as well as the connections between these factors and the standard of living, stratification, location in the world system, and culture.

Health Statistics

In 2002, the total population of Russia was 144,082,000 and the GDP per capita was $8,486. The life expectancy for males was 58.4 years, and females had a life expectancy of 72.1 years; in comparison the "healthy life expectancy at birth for males was 52.8 years and for females was 64.3 years (http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/)." The child mortality rate per 1000 people was "21 for males, and 16 for females, while the adult mortality rate per 1000 was 464 for males, and 168 for females. The total health expenditure per capita was $454, and the total health expenditure as % of GDP was 5.4 (http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/)."

It is predicted that poor health results in males losing "5.6 healthy years of life, and females losing 7.8 years of healthy life, and the percentage of total life expectancy lost due to poor health is 9.6% for males and 10.8% for females (http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/)."

National Health Accounts

In 2001, the "per capita total expenditure on health was $115 (U.S.). The General Government expenditure on health was 68.2% of total expenditure, and the General Government expenditure on health was 10.7% of total general government expenditure. The per capita government expenditure on health was $78 (U.S.) in 2001 (http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/)."

Social security was a source of 21.8% of expenditures for public health, while external resources accounted for 3.1% of the total expenditures of healthcare. In the private sector, the total health expenditure was 31.8%. Prepaid plans accounted for 4.5% of these expenditures, while 84.40% of all private expenditure came from out-of pocket (http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/).

Increase in Disease

Since the mid-1990's Russia has seen a critical change in the health of its citizens. "Russia's political turmoil, its economic crisis and its new freedoms have been accompanied by a wave of old diseases. Tuberculosis flooded the country in 2000, producing what some authorities called the world's largest outbreak of the drug-resistant variety, one of medicine's most ominous problems. Rates of other infections, including hepatitis, syphilis and AIDS also skyrocketed, there was an epidemic of diphtheria, and outbreaks of encephalitis, typhoid fever, malaria, polio, pneumonia and influenza were reported throughout the region (http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/science/05INFE.html?ex=1109739600&en=2a56df9be6a07c13&ei=5070)."

The rise in disease can be attributed to "thin budgets, with which government health programs are no match for infections that have gained new momentum by increasing poverty, stress, alcoholism, overcrowding and intravenous drug use (http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/science/05INFE.html?ex=1109739600&en=2a56df9be6a07c13&ei=5070)."

In 2000, infectious diseases were responsible for 2% of all deaths reported in Russia. While this rate is not at the level of third world countries, it is "still four times higher than in most developed nations. The total cost of infectious diseases continues to rise as the number of cases grows each year (http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/science/05INFE.html?ex=1109739600&en=2a56df9be6a07c13&ei=5070)."

Coping With Poverty

Russian households in recent years have found they have to adapt in order to survive under Russia's new government. Research has shown that "a household's choice of survival strategy strongly depends on its human capital: the higher its level of human capital, the more likely it is to choose an active strategy (such as finding a supplementary job or increasing home production).

Households with low levels of human capital, those headed by pensioners, and those whose members have low levels of education are more likely to suffer social exclusion. To prevent poverty from becoming entrenched, it has been recommended that the trend toward marginalization and impoverishment of these groups of households be monitored and targeted policy interventions be undertaken to reverse the trend (http://econ.worldbank.org/working_papers/1417/)."

Conclusion

Russia has seen a number of changes in its health and disease statistics in the past decade. By evaluating these statistics, as well as factors which improve its citizen's quality of life, it is hoped that Russia while overcome its stratification of classes and realize better health and life expectancies.