The doctors cited interesting figures from a study conducted during two years of the pandemic, from 2020 to 2022.
Photo: Svetlana MAKOVEEVA
On December 1 and 2, the II National Congress with international participation “National Health-2023” was held at the “Russia” exhibition in VDNKh. Non-communicable diseases were also discussed: those that can become chronic are diabetes, hypertension, various cardiovascular diseases and oncology. And all of them can be prevented. These diseases depend directly on lifestyle. And its development depends on timely detection and timely prescribed treatment.
Oksana Drapkina, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor, director of the National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine, chief independent specialist in therapy and general medical practice of the Ministry of Health of Russia, cited interesting figures from a study carried out during two years of pandemic: from 2020 to 2022.
1. The higher the healthy lifestyle index, the less chance of getting sick.
The National Center for Medical Research in Preventive Medicine has a special index of healthy lifestyle that takes into account five “pillars”: no smoking, no harmful consumption of alcohol, moderate or high physical activity, consumption of vegetables and fruits of at least 500 grams per day. , low salt consumption. These factors are considered basic for a healthy lifestyle.
“As our study showed, people who follow a healthy lifestyle have a 39% lower risk of mortality from all causes! Death from cardiovascular diseases: 36%. And the risk of developing these diseases is reduced by 19%,” said Oksana Drapkina. “It would seem like simple and basic things, but what is the result?”
2. In the last 10 years, they have started drinking less.
Surprisingly, it is true that even during the pandemic alcohol consumption in Russia decreased. Compare the figures obtained in 2012-2013 and in 2020-2023:
* Not used at all in 2012 – 18%, in 2022 – 33.9%
*Moderate use: 75.6% vs 62.3%.
* Abused: 5.9% vs. 3.8%.
“We ourselves were surprised by these results, because the pandemic and confinements could only push Russians to commit abuses,” says Professor Drapkina. – But it turned out that people’s awareness has grown quite significantly in 10 years. It is true that it must be clarified that during these two years of pandemic, people have become less active.”
3. The effectiveness of medical examinations and screening has increased.
“Of course, everyone recognizes that clinical examination is one of the main instruments in the fight against non-communicable diseases,” says academician Drapkina. “It allows us to detect them at an early stage and immediately begin effective treatment, which allows the person to live a long and active life. Here are the numbers for 9 months of 2023:
* About 123 thousand respiratory diseases were initially detected;
* Diseases of the circulatory system: 925 thousand;
* Diabetes mellitus: about 100 thousand;
* Malignant neoplasms: just over 44,000, of which 57% are in the early stage.
“Yes, the clinical examination is very effective, but for some reason our citizens expect that at the initial examination they will be fully examined and are very disappointed because “they just measured the pressure,” notes Oksana Drapkina. – But the objective of the initial examination is precisely to obtain a basic image. And for this the simplest and most basic manipulations are enough.
What is included in the initial examination: questionnaire (i.e., medical history), blood tests for sugar and cholesterol, body mass index measurement (simple weighing), blood pressure measurement, and fluorography. From the age of 40, add intraocular pressure measurements, ECG, fecal occult blood test, mammography in women, determination of the prostate-specific gene (in men, also blood tests). The last two tests can detect breast and prostate cancer.
“And this is enough,” says Professor Drapkina. – Only if there are problems or the doctor has suspicions, the patient is referred to a specialist, additional tests are prescribed, that is, the second round of clinical examination begins. This helps us identify the disease in the early stages. And the annual medical examination for people over 40 years old makes it possible to see the dynamics of well-being and changes in tests. And this is also important to be able to track the appearance of any disease in time.
“The president noted that the average life expectancy in Russia at the end of 2023 will be 74 years,” summarized Ivan Deev, director of the Department of Health Care Surveillance, Analysis and Strategic Development of the Russian Ministry of Health. – But it is important for us to reduce part of the difference between average life expectancy and the duration of a healthy and active life. It is evident that towards the end of life people are overwhelmed by diseases. And our task is to have as few of them as possible.
