Determinants of socially important diseases in European countries and Russia

Abstract

The article presents a review of the concepts and modern methodological and practical directions used for studying social determinants of health and socially significant diseases on the example of cardiovascular disease and tuberculosis. The analysis of modern literature devoted to the problems of disease and mortality allows us to identify groups of determinants that lead to the development of socially significant diseases, both infectious and non-infectious, in Europe and Russia. It is known that socio-structural and contextual determinants (economical, educational and socio-psychological well-being) have the strongest impact on the population’s health. These determinants are common for health and several socially significant diseases, including tuberculosis and cardiovascular diseases. European studies of the last years have been discussing their relationship with global social processes that lead to the transformation of the social structure of societies and determine the impact of socio-structural and in-country contextual determinants. The rapid change in the social structure of European societies was caused by the migration crisis that began in 2015. Mass migration to Western Europe from low-income countries of North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and to Russia — from the CIS countries and Ukraine, has led to an increase in the incidence of socially significant diseases, problems of the health care system in the recipient countries, and the availability of health care for the indigenous population. Thus, migration becomes a significant determinant and is included in modern studies of public health problems along with such characteristics of the social context as economic indicators of the country's functioning, income inequalities, financing of the health system, access to health care, the level of literacy, and socio-psychological well-being.