Health. General health The general condition of the human body but

Day after day we are flooded with information about various diseases, but rarely do we hear what it means to be in good health. Not all of us certainly look the same, because we have different body types, shapes and weights, and what is good for one person may be harmful for another. A healthy person can easily perform general sports activities.

If someone is physically healthy, it usually means that they have healthy habits, such as regular exercise and proper nutrition.

Emotional and spiritual health should also be taken into account when assessing overall health. Having a generally positive attitude towards life, interaction and communication with other people, and faith are also factors that can indicate a healthy person.

In general, if you feel well, it is likely that you are healthy. The other side of the coin is that you may not feel well, even if the doctor can't find anything wrong.

The simplest answer is: a person is healthy if he is not sick. However, people can be very sick and not know it. Blood tests may be used in this case to see if you are sick, even if you feel well.

Various medical tests may be needed. For example, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer often have no warning signs.

1) You feel good.
2) The doctor says that you are not sick.

well-being usually consists of the following manifestations:

1) You have enough energy to carry out daily activities and stay happy.
2) You sleep well and calmly, and wake up easily, feeling cheerful after sleep.
3) You have regular bowel movements.

External signs of a healthy person

Often, most of us define good health through the appearance of a person. A normal physique, a healthy complexion, even a pleasant voice and smile - all this gives us the impression of a healthy and strong individual. Let's look at physiological/physical signs that can tell us if we are in good or bad health.

• Healthy Gums.

Here is a brief description of healthy gums: Healthy gums are strong, fleshy and resistant to movement; the oral mucosa should be “reddish pink” or “coral pink” with a fine texture. The gums should not be pale, purple or dark red. Healthy gums have a smooth, arched or wavy appearance around each tooth. The lack of certain vitamins and minerals, the presence of a serious illness affects the gums quite quickly.

• Healthy hair.

A healthy person has healthy hair. Healthy hair is easy to spot. They are shiny and bright, not looking like flakes or showing any visible damage. Unhealthy hair can be a harbinger of health problems. According to dermatologists: "We used to think that hair is just protein, but now we understand that there are a number of internal conditions that affect the health of our hair." Yes, hair can be a reflection of a wide variety of health problems!

Dry, limp, thin hair can be caused by more than just hair dyes or swimming in chlorinated water. This may be an indicator of an underactive thyroid known as hypothyroidism. Other signs of hypothyroidism are fatigue, weight gain, slow heart rate, and feeling cold all the time.

Scaly or ruddy spots on the scalp, crusts usually mean psoriasis. Psoriasis is often accompanied by other autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Thinning hair all over the head - the cause may be a sudden, psychological or physical stress, such as a divorce or job loss. Another reason could be a high fever from the flu or an infection. Diabetes can also lead to thinning hair or even hair loss. A number of medications and hormonal changes also cause hair loss as a side effect.

Dry, brittle hair that breaks easily - most often, hair becomes more brittle as a result of chemical treatments and dyeing. However, some medical conditions also lead to hair breakage. Among them: Cushing's syndrome, a disease of the adrenal glands that leads to excess production of the hormone cortisol. Excessively dry hair can also indicate that your diet is deficient in omega-3 fatty acids.

• Healthy Language.

The appearance of the tongue also reflects the overall health of a person. A healthy person has a reddish-pink tongue. In addition, a healthy tongue should not be lined. After the gums, the tongue is the second most common site for various bacteria and pathogens in the mouth that have entered from outside or inside the body. Due to optimal conditions of humidity and temperature, the tongue is a preferred site for colonization of germs and bacteria.

Our tongue can show us when we are sick. Too smooth tongue can indicate anemia or vitamin B-12 deficiency. A swollen tongue may be a sign of an infection. Taste problems can also be a sign of an infection or a side effect of certain medications. It can also be a sign of nerve damage. Ulcers on the tongue appear due to stress or fatigue. These lesions are usually very painful and sometimes just appear for no known reason.

A white coated tongue usually means you are dehydrated. Smoking or drinking alcohol can cause this condition. Red tongue is a sign of various nutrients. Watch what you eat! If your tongue has bright red spots on its upper surface, this is harmless and usually goes away on its own, but it could be caused by hormonal changes, allergies, or even possibly stress.

• Regular bowel movements.

Regular stools are also very important when it comes to health. But in most cases, less frequent stools is not necessarily a cause for concern. Regular bowel movements (or bowel movements) can vary from person to person, but there are a few fairly common causes of constipation. Frequent bowel movements are not necessarily a sign of constipation. The sign of constipation has more to do with the consistency of the stool (or feces) and the difficulty of defecation.

Gentle bowel movements are much more important than the fact that they are frequent. Most importantly, regular bowel movements should be free of tension or pain. Your stool can also reveal a lot about your health. As you know, the gastrointestinal tract is a fairly high-tech processing unit. The digestive tract absorbs all the nutrients you take in and eliminates all the waste that is generated. Therefore, your stool reflects how good or bad your body is and how it absorbs nutrients.

• Deep and restful sleep.

Healthy sleep should last 7-8 hours on average. A person's ability to have deep, restful sleep without numerous disturbances is a strong indicator of overall health. Sleep allows your entire body to regain its energy, heal and restore tone. Deep and restful sleep is the basis of health. Contrary to popular belief, it's not even how many hours you sleep that matters, but how deep your sleep level is. After all, it is the depth of sleep that ensures the regeneration of body tissues and healing from diseases.

Stress and hormonal changes can be one of the causes of sleep deprivation. Insomnia is more common in women than in men due to the secretion of hormones. In fact, insomnia is one of the most common side effects in women due to an increase or decrease in the secretion of hormones that are responsible for controlling PMS, the menstrual cycle, menopause, and more. The occurrence of various diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma, various types of allergies, arthritis and thyroid disorders can lead to sleep disorders. Sleep can also be difficult due to the consumption of medications that are taken to treat these illnesses.

Human health is a combination of physical, mental and social condition. This is a general definition. The mental state usually depends on life circumstances. Social - from the standard of living in the country, the work of state bodies. Well, the physical state is completely subject to the person himself, from his own efforts.

We will talk about how the general physical condition of a person and health are interconnected on www.site today with you:

Immune system and general health

General physical development and health are directly dependent on the functioning of the immune system. It protects the body from the penetration, destructive effects of pathogens: bacteria, viruses, fungi. If everything is good with the immune system, then everything is in order with health. So a person has the opportunity to be physically strong.

For good immunity, the work of the bone marrow is important, which, in turn, requires a sufficient amount of testosterone hormone, high-quality nutrition, regular intake of vitamins, especially B12.

Testosterone is produced by the endocrine system, but in an extremely small amount, which is not enough to maintain good health. In order for the body to receive enough of this hormone, regular physical activity is necessary. They activate the production of testosterone, which stimulates bone marrow cells, which, in turn, ensures the intensive work of the immune system.

How to improve overall physical condition and improve health?

Physical exercises

Everyone knows that physical activity, physical education is extremely important for good physical condition and human health. Everyone can choose for themselves feasible sports. You can go swimming, basketball, volleyball, running, etc. You can attend yoga classes, do sports dancing, go to the gym. And just regular home exercise is extremely beneficial.

As we have said, physical activities stimulate the release of testosterone into the blood. This hormone enriches the bone could, the muscular system, activates the immune system. All this has a positive effect on overall physical health.

However, you need to understand that excessive loads, on the contrary, deplete the endocrine system. Therefore, you need to know your capabilities and not exceed them.

hardening

Tempering is as important to good health as sports. These preventive procedures strengthen the immune system, increase the body's resistance. They not only help to cope with sudden changes in temperature more easily, prevent the development of colds, but also strengthen the nervous system and improve its condition.

In addition, hardening increases the body's endurance, increases overall tone and performance, and improves mood.

The main types of hardening: air, sunbathing, contrast shower, exposure to cold or high temperature.

Food

The general physical condition of the body, its health is inextricably linked with nutrition. With food, we get useful substances that are the building material for all cells, without exception, that make up internal organs, systems, blood (other biological fluids), as well as skin, hair and nails.

Food supplies the substances necessary for the normal metabolic process, affecting the work, hormonal and other systems.

With improper, monotonous nutrition, lack (or excess) of micro- and macro-elements, an imbalance of nutrients occurs. This provokes a metabolic disorder. As a result, the development of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and other health problems.

Internal factors

The psychological state is no less than the physical one affects the overall health of a person. In general psychology, there is a whole area of ​​\u200b\u200b"psychosomatic medicine" that studies the influence of psychological, mental health on the physical state.

Specialists are well aware that high self-esteem, the approval of others, beauty, love in all its manifestations significantly improve the psychological mood, increase vitality. Positive thinking, the ability to accept any life circumstances, resistance to stress, reduce the development of depression, help to cope with difficulties and difficult situations.

Positive psychological factors reduce the risk of developing many diseases. No wonder folk wisdom says that "all diseases are from nerves."
To maintain a good physical condition, you need to keep it clean, constantly “train” not only the body, but your thoughts and emotions.

Bad habits

Probably, no one will argue that any bad habits undermine health, causing terrible harm to the body. If a person does not take measures to combat alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking, this damage is irreversible. The physical condition of such a person is extremely deplorable, there is no need to talk about health.

If a person cannot get rid of addictions on his own, he needs professional treatment. Only in this way will he be able to return to normal life, to find a good physical, mental shape.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the general physical condition of a person, his health is influenced by all the factors described in the aggregate. Therefore, they must be applied in combination. Be healthy!

individual health is the health of every member of society. The concept of health is currently invested with a broader meaning than the absence of diseases, it includes the activity capabilities of a person that allow him to improve his life, make it more prosperous, and achieve a higher degree of self-realization.

Note that well-being concerns all aspects of a person's life, and not just his physical condition. Spiritual well-being correlates with the mind of a person, his intellect, emotions. Social well-being reflects a person's ability to live safely in the real environment (natural, man-made, social). Physical well-being is associated with the physical capabilities of a person, with the perfection of his body and life expectancy.

Thus, the well-being of a person is the defining concept of his health. The well-being of a person depends on his physical, spiritual and social health. It is impossible to get a complete picture of human health without taking into account the degree of influence on him of mental, biological and social processes occurring in everyday life, and his ability to adapt to them. No disease is limited to only the body or only the psyche. Man, unlike the rest of the animal world, is endowed with a creative mind and is a social being, which means that he has biological (physical), spiritual and social health. At the same time, the basis of health is increasingly its spiritual component.

To prove the latter thought, let us turn to the statements of the ancient Roman orator Mark Tullius Cicero. Here is what he wrote in his treatise “On Duties”: “First of all, nature has given every species of living beings the desire to defend themselves, to protect their lives, that is, their bodies, to avoid everything that seems harmful, to acquire and obtain for themselves everything necessary for life: food, shelter, and so on. The desire common to all living beings to unite in order to produce offspring, and care for this offspring. But the greatest difference between man and beast is that the beast moves as far as his senses move him, and adapts only to the conditions around him, thinking little about the past and the future. On the contrary, a person endowed with reason, thanks to which he sees the sequence between events, sees their causes, and the previous events and objects do not escape him, he compares similar phenomena and closely connects the future with the present, easily sees the entire course of his life and prepares himself everything you need to live. Man has above all a propensity to study and investigate the truth.

Spiritual, physical and social health are three integral components of health, which must be in harmonious unity, which ensures a high level of human health and well-being.

physical health affects the spiritual life, and spiritual control provides the necessary discipline to maintain physical health, and together they affect social health and ensure social well-being.

Physical health is ensured by motor activity, rational nutrition, hardening and cleansing of the body, a rational combination of mental and physical labor, time and ability to relax, exclusion from the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Spiritual health It is provided by the process of thinking, knowledge of the surrounding world and orientation in it. Spiritual health is achieved by the ability to live in harmony with oneself, with relatives, friends and society, the ability to predict and model events, to form a style of one's behavior.

social health is the ability of a person to adapt in natural, man-made and social environments. It is achieved by the ability to foresee the occurrence of dangerous and emergency situations, assess their possible consequences, make an informed decision and act in a specific dangerous or emergency situation, in accordance with their capabilities.

A number of factors influence human health and well-being. Among them, the leading place is occupied by physical, social and spiritual.

Among the physical factors, the most important is the factor of heredity. Studies show the influence of heredity on almost all aspects of our physical health. This is a person's predisposition to certain diseases or the presence of congenital physical defects. The degree of influence of heredity on health can be up to 20%.

Among the social factors, it is necessary to single out the state of the environment, the impact of various dangerous and emergency situations and the organization of protecting the population from their consequences, as well as the available level of medical care. Together they make up 30%.

The spiritual factor is the most important component of health and well-being. It includes an understanding of health as the ability to create goodness, self-improvement, mercy and selfless mutual assistance, and the creation of a healthy lifestyle. It should be noted that encouraging people to lead a healthy lifestyle is a difficult task. Knowing what a healthy lifestyle is is one thing, but leading it is quite another. A person tends to repeat those types of behavior that bring pleasure. At the same time, actions that are often unhealthy can give quite pleasant sensations for a short time. Choosing a healthy lifestyle requires a high level of understanding and commitment. Thus, the spiritual factor largely depends on the individuality of the way of life. The degree of its effect on health is 50%.

In conclusion, we note that each person is responsible for their own health and well-being. Achieving a good level of health and well-being is a continuous process in a person's life, which implies a certain attitude in life and daily behavior. To achieve a high level of individual health, everyone should strive to develop a number of the most necessary qualities that contribute to the preservation and strengthening of health. First of all, this is a conscious desire to observe the norms of a healthy lifestyle, the constant improvement of one's physical and spiritual qualities, respect for the natural environment and its preservation to the best of one's ability, cultivating the conviction that the health of each person depends on the health of the natural environment.

It is necessary to rethink our attitude to personal health and understand health as a personal and social value.

Human health depends on the external environment (natural, man-made and social) and on the ability of a person to behave safely in everyday life and in various dangerous and emergency situations. This means that in order to maintain and promote health, it is necessary to constantly learn to anticipate dangers, assess the situation and be able to act adequately in the current situation to reduce the risk factor for life and health, form your own individual system of a healthy lifestyle that ensures spiritual, physical and social well-being.

Questions

1. What are the components of a person's overall health?
2. What are the main factors affecting human health?
3. What is the role of physical factors on human health?
4. What is the role of social factors on human health?
5. What is the role of spiritual factors on the state of human health?

Exercise

Briefly formulate your understanding of individual human health and show the influence of physical, social and spiritual factors on it.

The central concepts of valeology and medicine are "health" (from lat. valetudo, sanitas) and "disease" (from lat. morbus, Greek pathos), the interaction between which can be designated as "the unity and struggle of opposites". These are extremely complex, multilevel and multidimensional concepts. It is precisely with this circumstance, apparently, that the absence of completely satisfying perfect definitions of these terms is connected until now. Moreover, one can even come to outwardly opposite interpretations if we consider them at different levels. In particular, from the point of view of philosophers, “disease” at the individual level can be defined as a violation of adaptive mechanisms, at a higher, population level, one can say that “disease” is adaptation, adaptation to new environmental conditions.

There are many definitions of the concept of "health", and each specialist interprets it from his own standpoint, based on the essence of the relevant science. Thus, hygienists believe that health is the optimal interaction of the human body with the environment; physiologists believe that health is the ability to maintain homeostasis, i.e. the relative constancy of the internal environment of the body; philosophers and sociologists give the following definition: health is a state of optimal functioning of the body, allowing it to best perform its social functions; or health is something more than the absence of disease and injury, it is the ability to fully work, rest, perform the functions inherent in a person, live freely and joyfully. And each of the definitions is legitimate, since in violation of health there is both one and the other, and the third. Health is both a medical and a social category at the same time; it is also a category of psychological, philosophical, economic, etc.

The generally accepted definition of health is given in the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO): "Health - it is a state of complete physical, mental (mental) and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease. Unfortunately, this interpretation is not aimed at a quantitative assessment of health, it contradicts the currently observed trend in the change in the health of the population, being designed for an ideal variant of health, and, finally, considers health only in statics, although this is a dynamic process of formation of a growing organism and personality , which changes throughout subsequent life. However, it is precisely this definition that is inherent in a holistic anthropological approach, which optimally reflects the combination of biological and social in a person.

It becomes clear that the actual "health" can have different aspects, or components.

physical health - it is not only the absence of diseases, but also a certain level of physical development (and its harmony), physical fitness and the functional state of the body.

According to the WHO definition mental (spiritual, mental) health is a state of well-being in which a person can realize their own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and contribute to their community.

Mental health criteria as defined by WHO are:

• awareness and feeling of continuity, constancy and identity of one's physical and mental "I";
• a sense of constancy and identity of experience in situations of the same type;
• criticality to oneself and one's own mental production (activity) and its results;
• compliance of mental reactions (adequacy) with the strength and frequency of environmental influences, social circumstances and situations;
• the ability to self-govern behavior in accordance with social norms, rules, laws;
• the ability to plan one's own life and implement these plans;
• the ability to change the way of behavior depending on the change in life situations and circumstances.

It is also customary to single out spiritual, moral and social health.

Spiritual health - it is a system of human thinking, its values, beliefs and attitude to the world around.

moral health is determined by those moral principles that are the basis of the social life of the reosnka, i.e. life in a particular human society. Distinctive signs of moral health are, first of all, a conscious attitude to work, mastery of the treasures of culture, active rejection of mores and habits that are contrary to a healthy lifestyle.

social health means the ability to communicate with other people in the conditions of the surrounding social environment and the presence of personal relationships that bring satisfaction.

The report of the WHO Expert Committee "Mental health and psychosocial development of children" states that the main condition for normal psychosocial development (in addition to a healthy nervous system) is a calm and welcoming environment created by the constant presence of parents or persons in their stead. It is emphasized that at the same time, the child should be given more autonomy and independence, give him the opportunity to communicate with other children and adults outside the home and provide appropriate conditions for learning. "Many children do not have these conditions," the report states.

Based on the analysis of the results of numerous studies in various countries, WHO experts have convincingly shown that mental health disorders are much more common in children who suffer from insufficient communication with adults and their hostile attitude, as well as in children who grow up in a family discord.

These same studies found that childhood mental health problems have two important character traits:

• firstly, they represent only quantitative deviations from the normal process of mental development;
• secondly, many of their manifestations can be seen as a reaction to specific situations.

So, children often experience serious difficulties in one situation, but successfully cope with them in another. For example, they may have behavioral problems at school but behave normally at home, or vice versa.

Most children at one time or another under the influence of certain situations may develop disorders of the emotional sphere or behavior. For example, there may be unreasonable fears, sleep disturbances, eating disorders, etc. Usually these disturbances are temporary.

WHO experts paid particular attention to the fact that it is in childhood that mental health problems are more directly related to the environment than in other age periods.

In most cases, neuropsychiatric disorders do not occur suddenly, but have a long history of their development, manifesting themselves as certain problems of age-related mental development and, more broadly, problems of personality formation. To recognize these problems in time means to warn not only once development of nervousness, but also manifestations of undesirable deviations in behavior and development.

It should be noted that the concepts of norm and health do not coincide due to the fact that the damage that occurred at the lower levels of integration of the organism can be compensated by the regulatory mechanisms of higher levels, which ensures health at the level of the whole organism.

There are following levels integration, or structural organizations.

• 1. The simplest microsystem that combines the molecular, subcellular and cellular levels is a tissue functional element.
• 2. An organ as a whole is an active complex of simple functional elements.
• 3. This is followed by specific anatomical and physiological systems (organs and transport and communication paths between them).
• 4. Generalized functional systems - a combination of specific anatomical and physiological systems aimed at performing any function, achieving a useful result (the theory of functional systems of the physiologist II. K. Anokhin).
• 5. A holistic organism unites all previous levels; it is with this highest level of integration that the states of health or illness in a person are associated, which are the result of the interaction of external factors (environmental, social, etc.) and internal (the state of various levels of integration).

The concept of "disease" is no less complex than the concept of "health". An analysis of the literature, in particular the Great Medical Encyclopedia, shows that attempts to define this complex category have also been unsuccessful so far. The above formulations are either too cumbersome, in which case they cease to be a definition, or are very short, and the one-sidedness introduced by the specialist is inevitable.

The term "disease" is used in several ways:

• in a narrow sense to refer to the disease of an individual (coincides with the term "disease");
• to designate the concept of "disease" as a nosological form;
• in a broader sense to refer to the general concept of the disease as a biological and social phenomenon.

Researchers base their definitions of this concept on various criteria. So, in the definition of R. Descartes (subsequently quoted by K. Marx): “Illness is a life constrained in its freedom” - the fact of violation of vital activity is emphasized. Some authors use an even narrower criterion - disability or well-being, which is not always the case with a disease; others - allocate a violation of homeostasis, a violation of the structure and function at the level of the whole organism or an imbalance of the organism with the environment. In particular, S. P. Botkin believed: “Any imbalance that is not restored by the adaptive ability of the body appears to us in the form of a disease.”

Here is one of the most common definitions of the concept of “disease” in the literature: it is a state and process of interaction between structural and functional disorders and protective and adaptive reactions of the whole organism, which occur under the influence of external and (or) internal causes, and, as a rule, lead to disruption of vital activity. At the same time, trauma (damage) is a special case of a disease that occurs under the influence of external factors.

In this definition, it is noted that each disease is a suffering of the whole organism, since the whole organism reacts to it, although sometimes it seems that local changes (trauma, boils) predominate.

Health and disease as a state of the body are qualitatively different, but at the same time they are in dialectical unity. In most cases, there is no clear boundary between the state of health and disease, the norm and pathology.

There are so-called borderline or transitional states from health to illness, the study of which is a very important but little explored area. Otherwise, these conditions are called prepathological, prenosological, or premorbid, i.e. premorbid.

“Pre-illness begins with a violation of the optimal interaction of the body with the external environment. Deviations appear in some indicators (homeostasis is disturbed), although health is maintained at the level of the whole organism due to compensatory mechanisms. The transition from health to illness is characterized by a number of features, general and specific, characteristic of each patient and disease. The onset of the disease is associated with the insufficiency of the reliability mechanisms that maintain the state of health, in connection with which new mechanisms of vital activity are switched on, which already characterize the pathology ”(A. M. Chernukh, 1981). There are significant difficulties both in studying prepathological conditions in experiments on animals and in recognizing them in humans, while an important role belongs to the development of new informative methods for assessing the functional state of the body. A number of complex methods have already been created for diagnosing pre-disease states in conditions of overtraining in athletes, in working conditions, monitoring the health status of astronauts according to the degree of intensity of heart rate regulation (method of variational pulsometry by R. M. Baevsky), etc.

According to I. I. Brekhman, most people are in this third state, intermediate between health and illness.

All three concepts (health, illness and pre-illness) can be combined by the term "state of health", which includes elements of each of them.

General characteristics of health indicators

The health status of the population is influenced by the following conditions and factors: biopsychological factors, working and rest conditions, living conditions, ecological situation and natural conditions in the place of residence, health care system, socio-economic and political conditions (Fig. 11.1).

Rice. 11.1.

Criteria for the state of health are the indicators by which we can evaluate it. The following criteria indicators are distinguished: a) the state of health of the population, or public health (demographic and medical-statistical);

b) indicators of the health status of the individual (medical and hygienic).

Public health as a characteristic of members of society as a whole is not only a medical concept, it is a social, socio-political and economic category, as well as an object of social policy; it needs to be measured, accurately quantified.

We can judge the health of society but by such demographic indicators as birth rates, mortality rates, natural population growth, average life expectancy, as well as medical and statistical indicators: morbidity - general, infectious (epidemic), non-epidemic, with temporary disability and some others which are studied by a science called social hygiene. If the birth rate is high, the death rate is low, the members of the society live long and rarely get sick, we can say that the society is relatively healthy.

The main demographic indicators are usually calculated per 1,000 people of the population.

The coefficient, or annual indicator, of the birth rate is determined by the number of live births per year, divided by the average annual population in a particular area, and multiplied by 1000.

Average annual population is the population on 1 January of a given year plus the population on 1 January of the following year, divided by two. Most often and most simply, the average population is defined as half the sum of the population at the start and end of the year.

Similarly, the coefficient, or annual rate, of mortality is calculated, but the number of deaths per year is indicated in the numerator.

The coefficient, or indicator, of natural population growth is defined as the difference between birth and death rates, or in absolute numbers - as the ratio of the difference between the absolute numbers of births and deaths to the average annual population.

An analytical assessment of the indicator of natural population growth cannot be made without taking into account the birth and death rates from which it was obtained, since the same increase can be observed both at high and at low birth and death rates. For this purpose, you can use the table. 11.1.

Table 11.1

Approximate indicators of natural movement

population

A high natural increase can be assessed as a favorable phenomenon only with low mortality. Low growth with high mortality is an unfavorable indicator. Low growth with low mortality indicates a low birth rate, and it cannot be regarded as a positive phenomenon either.

Negative natural growth in all cases indicates the unfavorable situation in demographic processes, which has recently been observed in our country.

Of great importance in the analysis of demographic processes is a differentiated study of the natural movement of the population according to its individual groups, i.e. along with the general ones, partial coefficients are calculated, among which the age-specific coefficients are of the greatest importance, taking into account the significant influence of age on birth and death rates.

Thus, the highest mortality is observed in the first year of life, especially during the neonatal period (the first four weeks), and the partial indicators of infant and neonatal mortality are calculated accordingly. The birth rate is due to the presence among the population of a larger or smaller number of women of reproductive (childbearing) age (15-49 years), therefore, a special birth rate is calculated - the fertility rate (general and for individual age groups of women), etc.

Life expectancy is a composite indicator of health status, which is an accumulation of age-specific mortality rates, making it a more reliable indicator of public health than general mortality rates.

Currently, in Russia, the average life expectancy for men is 59 years, for women - 74 years.

The state of health of an individual can be established on the basis of the subjective sensations of a particular person, together with clinical examination data, taking into account gender, age, as well as social, climatic, geographical and meteorological conditions in which a person lives or is temporarily located.

A well-known specialist in the hygiene of children and adolescents, Professor S. M. Trombach (1981) proposed the following medical and hygienic criteria for the health of an individual:

• the presence or absence of chronic diseases;
• functional state of organs and systems;
• the level of achieved physical and neuropsychic development;
• nonspecific resistance (resistance) of the body.

An individual comprehensive assessment of the health status of each child and adolescent ends with the definition of so-called health groups, which can also be used for young people.

Among the factors influencing the state of health, there are also risk factors for the development of diseases and loss of health. Moreover, the most significant risk factor is the lifestyle of the individual (use of psychoactive substances, unbalanced diet, harmful working conditions, poor material and living conditions, loneliness and social isolation, low cultural level); the next most important risk is the hereditary factor (predisposition to certain hereditary diseases). The ecological state of the habitat occupies the third place in terms of significance in the risk group, and the fourth place is occupied by the healthcare structure (Table 11.2).

Table 11.2

Risk factors for disease and health loss

• 1. Healthy, with normal development and a normal level of function.
• 2. Healthy, but with functional and some morphological abnormalities, as well as reduced resistance to acute and chronic diseases.
• 3. Patients with chronic diseases in the stage of compensation, with preserved functionality of the body.
• 4. Patients with chronic diseases in the stage of subcompensation, with reduced functionality of the body.
• 5. Patients with chronic diseases in the stage of decompensation, with significantly reduced functionality of the body. As a rule, children belonging to this group are not able to attend general educational institutions for children.

Assessment of the state of health is given at the time of the examination; acute disease, previous diseases, unless they have acquired a chronic form, the possibility of exacerbation, the stage of recovery, the likelihood of a disease due to heredity or living conditions, are not taken into account.

The presence or absence of diseases is determined during a medical examination with the participation of specialists, the functional state of organs and systems is detected by clinical methods using, if necessary, functional tests.

The degree of resistance of the organism is revealed by susceptibility to diseases. It is judged by the number of acute diseases, including chronic exacerbations, for the previous year.

The level and degree of harmony of physical development is determined by anthropometric studies using regional standards of physical development.

The level of mental development achieved is usually established by a child psychoneurologist who takes part in the examination.

The health of the population is an important component, both for each state and the planet as a whole. The modern health care system is able to support a person and bring him out of a state of illness, even with complex diseases. However, the health of the population depends not only on economic, social and medical indicators, the level of development of medical care in the country and region. An important contribution to the health of the nation is made by each person who understands responsibility and creates conditions for the development, formation and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle.