Structural and dynamic changes in occupational morbidity in the Sverdlovsk Region: current trends and regional features

Introduction. One of the key indicators of the effectiveness of occupational health risk management measures is occupational morbidity. The Sverdlovsk region is characterized by a significant percentage of workers who are exposed to occupational hazards, which determines the need for a systematic analysis of the dynamics and structure of occupational pathology.

The study aims to analyze the dynamics, structure, and regional characteristics of newly identified and accumulated occupational morbidity in the Sverdlovsk Region over the period 2011–2025.

Materials and methods. In the course of the work, the authors studied the data contained in the registry of patients in the Sverdlovsk region with established occupational diseases (3806 cases in 2968 people), as well as information about patients with occupational diseases registered in medical organizations in the region (6855 cases in 6121 people). The continuous observation method was used to analyze occupational morbidity, and therefore representativeness errors were not calculated.

Results. Despite the consistently high proportion of workers who are adversely affected by work, the rate of newly diagnosed occupational pathology in the region has decreased by 7.8 times in 15 years (from 4.39 to 0.56 per 10,000 employees). During this period, the structure of occupational morbidity underwent drastic changes: the proportion of pathology caused by physical factors increased from 6.9% to 54.9%, while the proportion of diseases associated with chemical factors decreased from 82.9% to 32.9%.

Limitations. The study is limited to the time frame 2011–2025.

Conclusion. Priority areas for the prevention of occupational morbidity in the Sverdlovsk region should be considered: reducing the effects of physical and chemical factors, the severity of the labor process, as well as improving the system for early detection of occupational diseases associated with them at the stage of periodic medical examinations.

Ethics. The conclusion of the local Ethics Committee is not required for conducting the study.

Contributions:
Gazimova V.G. — concept and design of the research, writing and editing of the text, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;
Shastin A.S. — writing and editing of the text, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;
Sozonova T.V. — data collection, statistical data processing, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;
Fedoruk A.A. — text editing, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;
Martin S.V. — text editing, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;
Ivashchenko M.A. — text editing, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article.

Funding. The study had no funding.

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

Received: 08.05.2026 / Accepted: 15.05.2026 / Published: 27.06.2026

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