Dynamics of Health Self-Assessment of Muscovites: A 20-year Retrospective

The objective was to compare self-assessment of health status, risk factors, and certain diseases in representative samples of the adult population in Moscow in 2003, 2013 and 2023 differentiated by age and gender.

Material and methods. Data from 2,582 respondents enrolled in the longitudinal household survey Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE (RLMS-HSE) was used. A statistical analysis using SPSS 26.0 (IBM Company) was performed.

Results. The average age of respondents in the 2023 sample was statistically significantly older than in 2003 and 2013 (p < 0.0001). The proportion of those who rated their health as “good and very good” increased from 35.6% in 2003 to 40.7% in 2023, while the proportion of those who rated their health as “poor and very poor” decreased from 14.8% to 10.1%. The frequency of positive responses about myocardial infarction decreased from 3.7 to 2.3%. There was an increase in the frequency of positive responses about arterial hypertension (from 32.5 to 39.7%), diabetes mellitus (from 4.9 to 8.2%), and oncological disease (from 2 to 3.1%), as well as the proportion of respondents with excess body mass index over 30 kg/m2 (from 14.4 to 24.1%; the increase was observed in all age groups except women aged 30.5-50 years). The proportion of those who answered positively to the question “Do you currently smoke?” decreased (p < 0.0001) from 41.2% in 2003 to 33.1% in 2023 (by 26% and 20% in men and women under the age of 30, respectively). The proportion of respondents who gave a positive answer about disability decreased from 14.4 to 12.8% (p = 0.3).

Conclusion. Over the past 20 years, significant changes in the health status of the population caused by a variety of factors have been observed. Subsequent studies should be aimed at assessing the relationship between population health and the factors recommended by WHO.

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