Introduction: The persisting high mortality rate among working-age adults affects both the production potential of the country and the prospects for achieving the goal of increasing healthy life expectancy, as set by the National Demography Project. Variations in mortality are attributed not only to structural differences in the population (sex, age, etc.) but also to significant differences in regional living and working conditions, thus necessitating a more careful study of spatial factors of its growth.

Objective: To conduct a spatial analysis of mortality among the working-age population and to identify its determinants based on data for the Republic of Bashkortostan (RB).

Materials and methods: The information basis of the study is a balanced panel of mortality rates and their socioeconomic determinants for 74 areas (54 districts and 20 cities) and 19 time spans (2002–2020), formed for men and women separately. The Moran’s spatial autocorrelation coefficient and the spatial panel regression modeling were used for data analysis. The neighborhood matrix was used as a weight matrix of spatial connectivity of territories.

Results: Our findings showed a pronounced spatial autocorrelation (p < 0.001) for mortality of the working-age population of both sexes. An increase in the gross municipal product per capita significantly (p < 0.001) reduced the overall mortality rate in both men and women of working age while an increase in the local crime rate, on the opposite, significantly increased it. Sex-specific differences were established in the impact of availability of medical resources on working-age mortality: for women this factor was found to be insignificant.

Conclusions: The mortality of the working-age population has a non-local, but a spatially dependent nature. 

Introduction: Optimization of information and analytical support for public health monitoring based on modern techniques of mathematical modeling and forecasting, multivariate statistical methods and artificial neural networks is becoming highly relevant.

Objective: To conduct a retrospective and prospective epidemiological analysis of the incidence of malignant neoplasms in the city of Taganrog, Rostov Region, for 1985–2022.

Materials and methods: We did a comprehensive long-term data analysis of statistical reporting forms and a personalized database of malignant neoplasms using factor analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, real risk assessment, and artificial neural networks. We used software of our own design, as well as software packages IBM SPSS Statistics version 19.0 and Matlab R2021a with the Neural Network Toolbox.

Results: Our findings indicate an unfavorable situation in the city of Taganrog, Rostov Region, with a 1.3-fold excess of the average annual cancer rate for the cities of the region and a continuous rising trend. Sex and age characteristics and priority cancer sites were determined. Based on regional criteria for assessing the real risk, we established that Taganrog ranks first in terms of cancer incidence and mortality, as well as seven cancer sites. The highest real risk has been found for breast and skin cancer. Using factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, we examined the structure of risk factors for colon cancer in 1988–2019. The applied technique of artificial neural networks provided higher accuracy in the medium-term forecasting of the frequency of malignant neoplasms compared to extrapolation forecasting using theoretical trend lines.

Conclusion: The use of multivariate statistical methods and artificial neural networks provides a highly informative characterization of the health status of the population. 

Introduction: Solving problems related to reducing morbidity and mortality of the population and increasing life expectancy is one of the strategic goals of the development of the Russian Federation.

Objective: To improve approaches to assessing losses to public health prevented through control and supervisory activities of the bodies and institutions of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor).

Materials and methods: For the first time, a new cascade model has been proposed for assessing and predicting prevented health losses in the triple system “control and supervisory activities of Rospotrebnadzor – environmental quality indicators – population health.” Thirty-five new neural network models were obtained to describe the relationships between factors characterizing the activities of Rospotrebnadzor and indicators of the quality of environmental media. New approaches have been developed to estimate the decrease in the modified indicator of life expectancy, which describes healthy life expectancy, based on prevented disease and death cases.

Results: The proposed approaches were tested using the example of the Russian Federation as a whole. The estimates showed that the proportion of prevented cases relative to actual levels for the entire population ranged from 0.8 % to 32.6 % depending on the disease category while the proportion of averted deaths ranged from 1.8 % to 13.4 %. In total, about 4.8 % of cases of total morbidity and 2.6 % of cases of all-cause mortality were prevented as a result of control and surveillance activities, while the prevented loss of modified life expectancy was about 1.14 years.

Conclusions: The results of this work can be used in the future to assess economic losses associated with health damage and to evaluate the efficiency of control and supervisory activities. To establish priority types of the latter, additional numerical experiments are required, which may be the subject of further research. 

Introduction: The relevance of the study is determined by a great number of functioning thermal power stations that operate using solid fuels (40 %) and are a source of ambient air pollution posing human health risks.

Objective: A comparative hygienic assessment of the component, disperse, and morphological composition of fly ash and airborne particles in the area surrounding a coal-fired power station for the purpose of increasing the accuracy of human health risk assessment.

Materials and methods: We have used unified and approved methods for hygienic assessment of ambient air quality; hazard identification and health risk assessment; scanning electron microscopy and micro-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of component, disperse, and morphological structure of fly ash and airborne particulate matter.

Results and discussion: Large coal-fired thermal power plants emit about 36 chemicals. Over 59 % of brown coal ash particles are calcium, magnesium, iron, silicon, aluminum, sodium, potassium, sulfur, and phosphorus compounds. Particles found in fly ash and ambient air of the surrounding area have similar components and dispersion, are predominantly less than 10 µm in diameter with the sphericity index ranging from 0.4 to 1.0. Maximum allowable concentrations (MAC) of seven chemicals are exceeded in the study area: up to 3.3 single MAC, up to 1.4 average daily MAC, and up to 1.5 average annual MAC, with the estimated contribution of the thermal power stations of about 40 %. We have also established increased non-carcinogenic health risks with the dust fractions alone generating risk levels as high as 5.5 HQac, 2.4 HQch, and 6.9 HIch, which are rated as “high” and “alerting”.

Conclusion: Identified solid particles (aluminum, magnesium, calcium, etc.) are more significant risk factors compared to unidentified particulate matter and can cause respiratory and circulatory diseases, diseases of the eye, etc., which requires their quantification. These chemicals are not included in air emissions inventory lists and are, therefore, not monitored. As a result, health risks posed by economic activities of thermal power stations may be underestimated.

Introduction: The key to sustainable development and well-being of a state is the health of children, which is a social and individual value. In the context of negative demographic trends observed in our country, health maintenance in the child population is becoming the most urgent task of healthcare at both the regional and federal levels. Disease incidence in children is one of the main indicators of public health, most objectively characterizing both its general condition and the degree of effects of various environmental factors.

Objective: A comprehensive analysis of disease incidence in the child population and health risk assessment within the region.

Materials and methods: Official statistical collections “Health of the Population of the Vladimir Region” by the Medical Information and Analytical Center for the pre-pandemic period of 2001–2019 were used to analyze incidence rates in the child population (aged 0–14 years) of the Vladimir Region by 16 ICD-10 disease categories, both for the region as a whole and each of its districts taken separately. The assessment of the probable disease risk was based on determination of epidemiological risk indicators. Data analysis was performed using StatSoft Statistica 12.

Results: The results demonstrated a rising trend in the child disease incidence in the Vladimir Region with the rate exceeding the national average and diseases of the respiratory system prevailing. A significant 2.5-fold increase in the number of neoplasms gives rise to concern. Long-term incidence rates varied significantly between the administrative areas of the region. The analysis of epidemiological risk helped establish territories with a very high risk of neoplasms and respiratory diseases in children.

Conclusion: Further research should be aimed at identifying factors that have an adverse effect on children’s health in the municipalities in order to minimize their impact, which is the main task of public health monitoring. 

Introduction: Deterioration of health of children and adolescents during school years is of particular concern to domestic experts. Myopia and diseases of the musculoskeletal system traditionally rank high in the structure of pediatric diseases.

Objective: To study the prevalence of school-related risk factors for postural disorders and spinal deformities in schoolchildren of different age groups.

Materials and methods: The study was conducted in December 2022 involving 278 students aged 9–15 years. We evaluated the lesson timetable, functional parameters of school furniture, weights of schoolbags and supplies, and the compliance of indoor shoes with hygienic requirements. The data were then analyzed to obtain the mean, minimum and maximum values, the share of the trait, and the significance of differences was assessed using Fisher’s exact test.

Results: We found violations in organization of the educational process, such as double lessons and the absence of in-class physical activity breaks, in all grades. Evaluation of classroom furniture showed that the proportion of table and chair mismatch with the height of students in elementary school was 32.09 % and 40.30 %, decreasing by the ninth grade to 13.16 % and 21.05 %, respectively. The mean weight of the schoolbag was above the permitted level in 97.14 % of elementary school girls and in 20.68 % of girls in grades 7–8 (φemp = 8.395; p ≤ 0.001); as for boys, the recommended schoolbag weight was exceeded in 93.75 % of third to fourth graders and 28 % of seventh to eighth graders (φemp = 6.46; р ≤ 0.001). Assessment of the compliance of indoor shoes with hygienic requirements revealed a significant (φemp = 1.85; p ≤ 0.05) excess in the number of elementary school boys (71.32 %) who prefer sneakers; more than a third of girls of all age groups have ballet flats or sneakers as their indoor footwear.

Conclusion: The prevalence of school-related risk factors for posture disorders is higher in elementary school, which makes it possible to predict an increase in the number of students with dorsopathy in high school. To maintain health of students, a set of measures has been proposed to minimize the adverse impact of school-related risk factors. 

Introduction: Infantile cerebral palsy is the disease caused by numerous factors and, in most cases, developing in the fetus in utero. The leading disorder in cerebral palsy is a permanent motor impairment, which is combined with impaired mental development, speech disorders, and mental retardation.

Objective: To assess the abilities of children with cerebral palsy to adapt in educational institutions of different levels, choose profession, and get employed.

Material and methods: The search for information was carried out on eLibrary.ru and PubMed using the following keywords: cerebral palsy, children, adolescents, education, adaptation, and career guidance. Of 496 sources found, 41 papers were found eligible for the review, most of them published in 2014–2023.

Results: It has been shown that socialization of such children is difficult; their attendance of kindergartens and schools are important stages. When preparing a child with cerebral palsy for school, it is necessary to take into account his desire to limit social contacts. Inclusive education is aimed at socializing such children, providing them the opportunity to interact with ordinary peers. The role of tutors in the adaptation of children with cerebral palsy to the kindergarten, school, college and university and the preparedness of teachers is discussed. Special training programs for teachers are required. Information and communication technology tools used in education facilitate adaptation of children, adolescents and students with cerebral palsy. It is necessary to make greater use of digital technologies and create a bank of professions for career guidance and employment of people with cerebral palsy.

Conclusion: The review presents the advantages of inclusive education that significantly contributes to socialization of children and adolescents and the choice of profession. It is important to have tutors for the adaptation of children with cerebral palsy in kindergarten, school, college and university, and special teacher training programs. 

Introduction: The article presents the results of analyzing the dynamics of consumption of milk and dairy products in the Russian Federation in 1990–2022 and their role in nutrition as a source of essential nutrients.

Objective: To analyze the dynamics and past trends in the consumption of milk and dairy products in Russia.

Materials and methods: We analyzed patterns of milk and dairy product consumption based on data of the following surveys: annual sample surveys of household budgets conducted by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) in 1990–2022; sample observations of diets carried out by Rosstat in the years 2013 and 2018, and the Russian monitoring of the socio-economic situation and health status of the population in 1994–2012.

Results: We have noted a positive upward trend in the frequency of consumption of milk and dairy products by the population; yet, in general, their consumption remains below the recommended rational values. The greatest increase in consumption was noted for fermented milk products, yogurt, sour cream and cream, cottage cheese and curd mass, cheese and feta cheese. At the same time, we established that only 74.5 % of adults and children over a year old include milk and fermented milk products, 47.6 % – cottage cheese and curd products, and 54.5 % – cheese in their diet daily or several times a week. A decrease in the consumption of milk and dairy products by the population, especially children, can be considered as a serious risk factor for the development of deficiencies of the most important essential nutrients (calcium and vitamins) and such related diseases as osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Conclusion: The necessity of developing and implementing targeted educational programs for various population groups on healthy eating with an emphasis on the role of dairy products in nutrition, their contribution to supply of macro- and micronutrients, as well as recommendations on including at least 2 to 3 servings of dairy products in the daily diet, both for children and adults, is substantiated. 

Introduction: The analysis of food names is an important task aimed at solving two problems, namely, determining the relationship between research results and individual words used and, as a result, obtaining a reliable, from the point of view of food quality, classification within subgroups.

Objective: To analyze the relationship between the names of food products and their micro- and macronutrient composition.

Materials and methods: The research object was the whole aggregate of the results of testing bakery products, processed meat products, and milk carried out within the framework of the Federal Project on Public Health Promotion in 2020–2021 by laboratories of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor). We applied such linguistic analysis methods as tokenization, noise word removal, stemming, and N-gram analysis.

Results: For bakery products, we selected words and their parts enabling us to divide samples into previously obtained groups with different contents of sodium, protein, and fat. For processed meat products, classified by the sodium and fat contents, we also compiled a list of words allowing a reverse classification by name. For fluid milk, we obtained a negative result since the products with the established low calcium content did not differ from other groups in terms of names and their parts.

Conclusions: The analysis of food names has demonstrated the potential for classifying foods by their names in order to assess their likely micro- and macronutrient composition. It is necessary to conduct a number of further studies aimed at expanding the list of analyzed product groups, especially those included in the consumer basket. 

Introduction: The human body is exposed to numerous chemical and biological environmental factors. Post-exposure allergic reactions are becoming increasingly common. Interacting substances enhance each other’s health effects and aggravate allergy symptoms. Registration of a high pollen count resulting from a gradual increase in ambient temperatures leads to disappointing forecasts of a high prevalence of allergic rhinitis (hay fever). Evaluation of public health monitoring data on drinking water and food quality has revealed the significance of such pollutants as nitrates and nitrites. The interaction between pollen and nitrates has not been studied although it is of interest in terms of potential health effects of combined exposures.

Objectives: To evaluate morphological changes in the quantitative composition of mast cells using an aqueous solution of molecular hydrogen in an experimental model of hay fever aggravated by exposure to chemical agents.

Methods: Male Wistar rats were selected for experimental modeling of allergic rhinitis and 34 groups of six animals each were exposed to pollen and chemical agents during 55 days. To assess morphological changes in the nasal respiratory mucosa, we stained tissues with Giemsa solution and also applied a combined staining technique (Patent No. 2781558 dated October 13, 2022). Study limitations: Groups for comparison of methods of administration of the aqueous solution of molecular hydrogen against the saline solution were not included.

Results: The cell morphology analysis revealed quantitative and qualitative changes in the animal groups with single and combined exposure to pollen and chemical agents and confirmed the therapeutic and prophylactic effect of the aqueous solution enriched with molecular hydrogen.

Conclusion: The combined exposure to pollen allergens and nitrates and/or nitrites induces significant mast cell activation compared to control and single exposure groups. Therapeutic and preventive effects of molecular hydrogen down-regulate mast cell degranulation.