The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on morbidity and mortality rates in the working-age population of the Russian Federation

Introduction. The COVID‑19 pandemic has become a global stressful factor for population health in most countries, including Russia. Although the elderly population was most affected, the pandemic had a significant impact on the health of the working-age population. In the course of this study, it was necessary to find out exactly how.

The study aims to consider the patterns of the COVID‑19 pandemic's impact on morbidity and mortality in Russia's working-age population.

Materials and methods. The authors analyzed data for the Russian Federation from the medical reporting form No. 12 and Rosstat data on mortality from tables C 51. We used reports for 3 years before the COVID 19 pandemic (2017–2019) and for 3 years after the pandemic (2020–2022). Data on the primary morbidity and mortality of the working-age population were selected in the reports. The age related incidence of COVID-19 according to form No. 16 VN and age related mortality from COVID-19 according to tables C-51 for 3 years of the pandemic were also analyzed for 10 age groups, separately for men and women. For the calculations, the researchers used Rosstat data on the population.

Results. During the pandemic, there was a marked increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases (by 19.7%–34.6%) in parallel with the increase in the incidence of COVID-19, which suggests an incomplete diagnosis of COVID-19 cases. At the beginning of the pandemic, in addition to COVID-19, there was a significant increase in mortality from respiratory diseases (by 21.4%–36.6%), circulatory system diseases (by 4.4%–10.0%) and digestive diseases (by 12.6%–20.8%), which may indicate the negative impact of coronavirus on a number of organs and body systems. When analyzing the age distribution of COVID-19 incidence, it was found that in all age groups, during all years of the pandemic, the incidence among women was much higher than among men (1.3–1.7 times), however, an analysis of age-related mortality rates from COVID-19 found higher values in men (1.2–1.7 times), this may indicate an insufficient detection rate of COVID-19 cases among men.

Conclusion. The pattern of changes in the morbidity and mortality rates of the working‑age population during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates the significant damage caused by the coronavirus to the health of this category of the population. Some data suggest incomplete diagnosis of COVID‑19 cases, especially in the male population.

Ethics. The conducted research did not require the conclusion of the Ethics Committee.

Contributions:
Pershin S.E. — research concept and design, analysis data, text writing, editing;
Tikhonova G.I. — concept and design of research, editing;
Gorchakova T.Y. — analysis data, editing;
Khvalyuk P.O. — analysis data, editing.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Received: 25.03.2025 / Accepted: 08.04.2025 / Published: 08.05.2025

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