Methodological Approach to Assessing the Index of Behavioral Determinants of Public Health

Introduction: The behavioral determinant is one of the key determinants of public health. It is the behavior of people that defines the frequency of visiting doctors and playing sports, having bad habits or being committed to implementing significant social functions. To manage the behavioral determinant, it is essential to develop an index that allows monitoring the state of public health factors.

Objective: To develop a methodological approach to calculating the behavioral determinant index (BDI).

Materials and Methods: To assess the BDI, we used “The urban health index: A handbook for its calculation and use” by the World Health Organization. The list of indicators describing the state of the behavioral determinant was compiled based on the results of the Rosstat Sample Population Health Monitoring. The BDIs were calculated using available indicators for the years 2020 to 2023. A correlation assessment was conducted in Stata to exclude contradictory indicators. All indicators used for calculations were standardized and the geometric mean was then calculated to obtain the values of the BDI. The three sigma rule was used to classify Russian regions by the level of the behavioral determinant.

Results: The developed methodological approach consists of several stages. The first stage includes selection of indicators to be used for calculation of the behavioral determinant index followed by assessment of correlations between these indicators at the second stage and standardization of the latter at the third. The fourth stage includes finding of geometric means to obtain BDI values and interpretation of results. Testing of the approach revealed the constituent entities of the Russian Federation demonstrating high BDI values (the city of Sevastopol, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Rostov Region, etc.).

Conclusions: The described approach to calculating the behavioral determinant index has a high potential for implementation by authorities. The index will ensure prioritization of regulatory objects and help monitor the effectiveness of the measures implemented.

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