HOUSING CONDITIONS AS AN ECONOMIC DETERMINANT OF THE HEALTH OF THE WORKING-AGE POPULATION

Abstract

To analyze the indicators of public health and the level of need for medical care, depending on the subjective assessment of housing conditions (living conditions). Research materials. The size of the real sample was 502 respondents of working age. The average age of respondents of working age in the general sample was 39.7 years. The sexual structure was somewhat dominated by women – 52 %, the proportion of men was 48 %, which corresponded to the general population. The subjective assessment of housing conditions (living conditions), as an independent feature, was carried out by the respondent himself on a 10-point scale. Based on the obtained parameters, 173 people were included in the main group, who estimated their living conditions in the range of 0–5 points. The control group included 329 people who rated their living conditions by 6 or more points. Taking into account the nonparametric nature of the data, a nonparametric analogue of the correlation coefficient, the association coefficient, was used, and in comparison, the criterion for the reliability of differences was used. The incidence of chronic diseases was assessed by the fact of their presence, the incidence of acute diseases – by the average number of acute diseases per year (the year preceding the study was estimated). Results. Subjective assessment of housing conditions can be considered as an economic determinant of health. It is optimal to use the value of 5 points as the critical value of the division into subgroups. With an assessment above 5 points, the self-assessment of health is higher (3.56 ± 0.05 vs. 3.34 ± 0.07 points), the level of chronic (42 vs. 62 out of 100 respondents) and acute (1.19 vs. 1.36 diseases per year) morbidity is lower, the proportion of frequently ill (more than 3 diseases per year) is lower (8.5 % vs. 15.6 %), the frequency of requests for medical care provided in outpatient settings is lower (2.56 ± 0.03 vs. 3.03 ± 0.05 cases per year) and in inpatient settings (1.09 ± 0.05 vs. 1.28 ± 0.05 hospitalizations per year), the proportion of those who frequently seek medical care (5 or more requests per year), provided on an outpatient basis (14.9 % vs. 21.9 %). There were no significant differences in the volume of emergency medical care in demand, depending on the value of the subjective assessment of living conditions.