Priority risk factors for population health in large industrial cities

Introduction. In large cities an assessment of the impact of environmental risk factors in addition to the levels of air pollution on the morbidity of the population and the medical and demographic situation should take into account the influence of the socio-economic living conditions of the population, both availability and quality of medical care.

The purpose of the work is to conduct a comparative analysis, assess the informativeness of indicators of air quality, socio-economic living conditions of the population, the availability of medical care, and identify the priority of these factors in large industrial cities of different regions of Russia.

Materials and methods. A comparative analysis of indicators of the ecological situation, socio-economic conditions of living and the availability of medical care to the population in large industrial cities for the period 2008–2018 was carried out according to official statistics.

Results. The criterion for choosing cities for the analysis was the population size. Large industrial cities of four Federal districts were selected as objects of research: Central (Central Federal District), Volga (Volga Federal District), Ural (Ural Federal District) and Siberian (Siberian Federal District). The main source of anthropogenic load in the Central Federal District in 50.0% of cities included in the analysis is motor transport, in 25.0% — stationary, in 25.0% the contributions of sources are comparable; in the Volga Federal District in 100.0% of cities — mobile sources; in the Ural Federal District, 50% of cities have stationary sources and 50% have mobile sources. In the Siberian Federal District, in 62.5% of the cities included in the analysis, stationary sources make the main contribution to the anthropogenic load. In cities with a population of 0.5–1 million people, the ratio of monetary income to the subsistence level and the number of doctors per 10,000 population is higher than in cities with population of 250–500 thousand.

Limitations. Limited access to quantitative data and time periods.

Conclusions. The indicator of anthropogenic load per inhabitant is an informative indicator of the direct impact of atmospheric air pollution on the health of the population in large cities. The ratio of the average per capita income to the subsistence minimum most objectively characterizes the level of material well-being of the population in regions with different levels of economic development. The number of doctors per 10,000 people is an indicator of the inequality of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of the level of medical provision and the availability of medical care.

Contribution:

Skovronskaya S.A., Ivanova S.V. — collection and processing of material, writing the text, editing;

Meshkov N.A. — concept and design of the study, collection and processing of material, writing the text, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;

Valtseva E.A. — research design, collection and processing of material, editing, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study was carried out within the framework of the State Assignment to the Centre for Strategic Planning and Management of Biomedical Health Risks of the Federal Medical Biological Agency of the Russian Federation.

Received: October 19, 2021 / Accepted: April 12, 2022 / Published: April 30, 2022