Social Health of the Arctic Zone Population, Russia | ||
| Health Education and Health Promotion | ||
| Article 4, Volume 9, Issue 4, 2021, Pages 335-342 PDF (393.35 K) | ||
| Document Type: Literature Review | ||
| Authors | ||
| K. Shlyk* ; L. Belonozhko; A. Gyurdzhinyan | ||
| Department of Marketing and Public Administration, Industrial University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russian Federation | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Aims: Social health is a person's internal state that determines his ability to communicate with society. The purpose of the study was to find a link between the population's health status and the social development of the Arctic regions in the Russian Federation. Ideas & Methods: The content of the term social health may change depending on the disciplinary field. There are two main methods to define it; in a broader sense as an analog of social moods, and in a narrower sense, as the emergence of subjective wellbeing. Findings: Socio-demographic characteristics of the social health of the Russian population showed a negative trend in the growth of crime and drug addiction in the country. Conclusion: Special attention should be paid to the importance of individual human behavior in determining social health. Each person has unique health factors, depending on age, gender, social status, and financial situation. Lifestyle plays an important role in a healthy lifestyle. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Community Health Services; Occupational Health Services; Health Policy; Social welfare; public opinion | ||
| Full Text | ||
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Introduction
Social health is the internal state of a person that determines his ability to communicate with society. Social health is a complex social phenomenon that occurs in human interaction with the social environment and reflects the level of this interaction. Social health itself is formed under the influence of parents, friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors, etc. [1]. This means that social health is directly related to the socialization of a person. Social adaptation is the ability of a person to adapt to something in the constantly changing conditions of their living environment. Social adaptation occurs in socialization and manifests itself in the effective social interaction of the individual with society. Social health reflects the characteristics of society and individuals. Therefore, this concept can be considered both from an objective (state-public) and subjective (individual). The formal approach to the problem of social health is based on distinguishing these two aspects from this category [2-3]. At the same time, objective or state criteria are determined by the existence of the rule of law, equality in the distribution of wealth, public accessibility of the decision-making process, and the degree of development of social capital and the cultural factor. The subjective criteria on which the assessment of social wellbeing is based include adaptability, degree of vulnerability (social, medical, legal), ability to perform social roles, functions in society, level of mutual support, etc. The difficulty lies in the fact that the personal characteristics of the subject that determines his needs, values, and area of focus of social activity complicate the relationship between society and the individual, increase the number of parameters that are not taken into account by formal criteria, which may partly explain the lack of universal standards and methods for assessing social health. However, this problem does not lessen its importance as an indicator of the relationship between society and a person. However, it only indicates the need to search for social and individual characteristics that lead to deterioration or deterioration of health or do not lead to the desired result despite efforts [4-6]. Society (the state) and individuals in terms of social health have their own goals based on needs, interests, values, and economic, social, and cultural development. Both for government institutions and people, when changing the external environment, three work methods can be used, taking into account different purposes: passive, adaptable, and transformative. By filling the category of social health with one person and the state, people will be able to achieve more effective social support and prevent social tension in society. This research aims to study the dependence of the socio-economic development of the Arctic Zone in the Russian Federation on the health status of the population. The theoretical significance of this work is determined by:
The practical significance of the study is determined by the implementation of the proposed system of measures for health protection and prevention of social factors:
In recent years, the health of the population has become the subject of research. At the same time, it is impossible to understand and define health regardless of the specific environment in which a person lives, isolated from various spheres of his life manifestations that are not related to the purposes and objectives of one person. Due to the insufficient development of the category of social health, it is necessary to study the social conditions of health, its position in the system of socio-cultural values that determine the attitude to health. From a theoretical point of view, when developing a category of social health, it is important to study the concepts of status, values, culture, and health and determine the relationship between the categories of social health and public health. It is necessary to study the social characteristics of health, including people's social attitudes and behaviors in the conditions of self-sufficiency, to determine the socio-cultural factors that affect health and the structure of these effects.
Lisitsin [7] suggests that scientific interest in protecting human social health has grown long ago and continues to this day. However, no important scientific works are analyzing the category of social health in the Russian literature. It can be noted that there are different views on the methods and technologies of social health research. According to P.A. Sorokin [8], the study of the social situation should be correlated with the need to develop the same approach in the social sciences as in medicine: to research the body as a whole and to know the history as a whole before the patient is diagnosed with the disease [9]. Social work is the ability of social analysis to control the social situation to a large extent, associated with equal attention to cultural and material elements, with the ability to coordinate changes in individual and collective needs. These authors emphasize the importance of developing concepts of social diagnostics [10]. Kopina & Korolkov [11] concluded that most of the members of modern society have a relatively low level of medical care and insufficient knowledge about it. It is very important to discuss medical and social issues, such as recreation, physical education, and the development of a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, Russian authors have recently worked on the social problems of a healthy lifestyle, physical education, and sports. Within the framework of the medical approach, two areas of research in the field of social health can be distinguished. In the first case, the emphasis is mainly on the internal characteristics of a person: social health is the ability to perform biological and social functions, the implementation of their potential, as well as the presence of circumstances and internal needs, their state of health [11]; secondly, according to external conditions: social health is optimal, suitable environmental, social, preventive conditions, the emergence of socially determined diseases, social adaptation and determination of the state of social immunity, harmonious development of the individual in the social fabric of society [12]. According to the psychological method, social health is considered a permanent link with spiritual and mental health. One of the most important factors is the relationship between a person and culture and the influence of these states on the human psyche, its psychological and social characteristics [2]. In addition, social health is identified within the methodology framework presented by the areas of human life and his needs [2, 3]. The purpose of the study was to find a link between the population's health status and the social development of the Arctic regions in the Russian Federation. Ideas and Methods The term social health does not have a generally accepted strict definition, and its content may change depending on the disciplinary field (in psychology and sociology, the interpretation of the category of social security will be different). However, it can be mentioned that this term has a conceptual core that combines its different definitions. At the same time, there are two main methods; the first one is associated with the interpretation of a term in a broader sense as an analog of social moods, and the second (in a narrower sense) is the emergence of subjective wellbeing. On the other hand, the first approach involves attention to the general acceptance of people in their lives in terms of social status (social status, financial status, etc.). In the process of involving people in the company's life, it is worth mentioning the factors that have a negative impact on it. These factors can be classified as follows: Social: These include the material stratification of society and the differentiation at the macro level, which naturally leads to conflicts between interests and social mobility and, consequently, to disintegration. At the micro-level, negative social factors can manifest in the family (lack of resources, frustration, the transmission of one's opinion from generation to generation). Informative: In this aspect, the media plays an important role, namely, their commercialization and negative impact on people. The imposition of different standards and the psychology of the consumer society has a detrimental effect on a person's self-identification. The problem is that the influence of informal social institutions puts too much pressure on people and that there is not enough of it in the most important areas. Spiritual: These factors are characterized by the fact that the lifestyle of the majority of consumers is currently formed based on their worldview, which voluntarily takes different risks. There is a low level of culture of self-preservation and responsibility. All this leads to health problems in society. Based on a person's place in the social structure and various factors, it is possible to determine the degree of participation in public life. Findings In the Russian Arctic, the importance of infrastructure factors is particularly high since, without high-quality social, cultural, and recreational conditions that guarantee the existence of the population, its maintenance in the Arctic becomes extremely problematic. As a result, without sufficient resources of human capital and a skilled labor workforce, the implementation of many strategic tasks for the development of the Russian Arctic may be called into question. Concerning some methods of measuring public welfare, let us first mention those used in international comparative studies. Among the methods of social health research used by international organizations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) deserve special attention. The Better Life Index is a test for collecting balanced patterns. According to the OECD methodology, when reading the index, 11 main sections are used, which reflect various aspects of a person's life and the level of social security. Each section is based on one to three symptoms (Table 1). Table 1) A system of indicators for calculating social security.  These categories are divided into two groups; aspects of wellbeing in terms of material living conditions (living conditions, income, work) and access to social, cultural, and political needs (society, education, ecology, civil rights, health, life satisfaction, security, reconciliation). The index is determined by calculating the weighted average of the previous indicators. Experimental studies of the social wellbeing of the Russian Arctic population should develop tools to integrate three groups of indicators:
In addition to the methods of measuring social wellbeing adapted to the specifications of the Arctic territories, the application of the above approaches to the study of values will allow adjusting the data on the population of the Russian Arctic region. A broad context, international and interregional comparative analysis of cultures determines the socio-cultural typological niche of the entire Russian Arctic and its territories. From the point of view of the development of socio-cultural processes in the Russian Arctic, this methodological orientation appears favorable for determining the interdependence of these processes and the socio-economic dynamics of the Russian Arctic territory. The main criterion for the wellbeing of a society, which characterizes the level of its social development, is the health status of different age groups of the population. Therefore, the study of the problem of strengthening and preserving the labor resources of Russia is one of the areas of the state's social policy. Based on the material of this study, the following results can be distinguished.
Discussion According to studies [2, 3, 5], social wellbeing is a subjective expression of the process and result of individuals' adaptation to social transformations and, therefore, should be studied in the context of this phenomenon [5]. Social health is determined by a combination of objective and subjective factors, an essential indicator of the population's quality of life (social wellbeing) [6]. The quality of life has conventionally been determined by the objective characteristics of a given society, which reflect its general economic and technological situation [12]. However, even in the last quarter of the 20th century, critical judgments about this approach were expressed in the scientific literature, which coincides with the reference to a one-sided interpretation of the concept of life quality, leading to paradoxes. With a high level of economic development, citizens of a country or region may experience a strong dissatisfaction with life, and at present, the reliability of these reports is indisputable. The subjective wellbeing [13] is the main category of assessing the quality of life, and there is the opposite extreme – the subjective degree of life satisfaction, reflecting the concentrated success/failure of an individual life strategy, mass data, etc., reflects the state of the economic subsystem. Thus, the purpose consists in finding a balance between these intercomplementary approaches. An important advantage of subjective sociological assessments of life quality is the ability to record the differentiation of relevant indicators by regions, demographic and professional groups to identify differences in the quality of life, and not because of the parameters of the social environment [10]. In this context, the study of the quality of life in the Russian Arctic, which has always been a certain socio-cultural space, requires mass surveys of the population to determine their subjective wellbeing in addition to the analysis of economic statistics. Foreign scientists draw attention to the fact that the quality of life is determined not only by the material wellbeing of the social society as a whole but also by the level of development of the social infrastructure, including the institutional reproductive potential and human capital [14-15]. In research practice, there is the experience in studying the social wellbeing of Arctic residents – based on the above and some other methods [6, 16-18]. However, these studies did not attempt to determine the relationship between variables reflecting the value trends of the population and indicators of social health subjective assessment. As a result, an important factor for social health is overlooked since the objective parameters of a person's social, economic, and political, and legal status do not directly affect the assessment, only when interpreted in the context of hierarchy. At the personal level, compared to the level of society, value systems are organized according to different principles. In one case, it is a system of motivating values that organizes people's priority life goals and the acceptable means to achieve them. In another case, this refers to the normative areas of cultural values that reflect the dominant and institutionally supported collective ideas of correct and deviant behavior, which have the power of constraint against the individual. In this regard, a negative relationship between the values imposed by culture and personal values can be noted when they simultaneously regulate the same sphere of social practice [19]. The method of The Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) was tested and improved as part of a long-term international research project to determine the living conditions of indigenous people in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia (Inuit, Sami, indigenous peoples of Chukotka). Although the authors of the methodology point to the need to adapt the tools to the specifics of the studied region and the studied ethno-social community, the underlying ideas remain unchanged. In particular, the SLiCA research program is aimed at measuring the situation of Arctic residents in the following areas: family relations and household economics; mobility (geographical), language and education; lifestyle (employment, leisure, values, and beliefs, identity, health); environment (housing conditions, income and expenses, security and legal protection, technical infrastructure); ecological situation, relations within the local community, and public participation [20]. One of the organizers of the international World Values Research project is a leader in values and relationships research [21]. It emphasizes the dialectic between the cultural and spiritual characteristics of national and regional communities and the economic institutions. The differences in cultural characteristics that are covered in extensive relative empirical research are conceptually explained by his colleagues (especially) using opposing systems of value policy, namely:
One of the researcher's resulting hypotheses is related to the idea that changes in value systems from one generation to another (from conventional to secular-rational, and from survival values to self-expression values), initially determined by social changes – the economic basis, become one of the main factors that determine the content of an individual's everyday practices (economic, political, family, marital, etc.) [22]. Another important assumption, based on experimental trends, is that as opportunities develop (economic, political, and legal) for achieving social wellbeing in the overall assessment of wellbeing and quality of life, people get opportunities to participate in them, they play an increasingly important role in the life of society (through social institutions) [21]. It follows logically that a high level of democratization of society, real guarantees of political rights and freedoms in the framework of cultural and socio-economic transformations of modern countries at the end of the 20-21st centuries are becoming a necessary condition for maintaining a high level of social health, and a high level of income and economic security are no longer a good factor in this process. Hofstede [23] interprets culture as a collective programming of consciousness that distinguishes members of one group or type of people from others, based on interstate comparative studies of cultural differences. Aspects (measures) of culture in this system are determined by a set of its dichotomous characteristics: power distance (more/less), insecurity-avoidance (more/less), individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long-term/short-term time orientation, pleasure/moderation [23].
In his study, Inglehart [22] traces the relationship between the normative values that mediate and support various models of social relations and the level of socio-economic development of regions (countries, regions). His approach identifies culturally defined core values that dominate a particular society and reflects how society is organized to address key issues regulating human behavior. Among these problems, Sh. Schwartz highlights:
The scientist a priori introduces a bipolar variant (in the form of a certain value area) of the cultural response to any fundamental problem, ideal types of Weber, and the real situation – a certain intermediate variant. The first problem-solving pattern was developed by the community. It consists of selecting a position between certain alternative values. The solution to the second problem is to more or less adhere to the values of equality or hierarchy. Finally, the third problem lies in the cultural dichotomy expressed against the values of harmony and domination.
As with any other form of health, social health is defined by the dialectical opposite: social disease. In other words, social health is a distinctive feature of a healthy society, in which the level of social diseases is minimal [24]. However, different concepts have different ideas about what a social disease is and, therefore, what is an indicator of social health. When developing authors' classification of social health indicators, there were two guiding principles:
 Figure 1) The classification of social health indicators The criteria of personal perception of the social situation are analyzed based on the data of sociological studies and reflect the person's perception of the living conditions. These include the population's assessment of the socio-economic and socio-political situation, financial situation, assessment of the activities of government structures, trust in the state and public institutions, as well as some indicators that reflect social wellbeing: social mood, level of happiness, protest potential, an example of social values, the degree of people's cohesion in society, willingness to unite for common actions, etc. [26, 27].
A special signal of the instability of positive trends in social health is the significant spread of hidden forms of social pathologies, as well as the results of sociological studies, which indicate that, despite the positive trends in a social mood, the symptoms of mental pathology are very common, such as anxiety, depression, and neurosis. A quick look at the indicators of improvement in official statistics does not give a complete picture of the real trends and threats to the development of Russian society and does not allow finding problems that can threaten the livelihoods of Russian society and the country as a whole. A detailed analysis of social health indicators makes it possible to see the most significant factors that affect the development of society and the state. To maintain and strengthen the positive developments in the field of social health, taking into account the political situation that has developed in recent months, the following measures are recommended:
In some regions, municipalities can better consider the real needs of the population [29]. The population has more opportunities to interact with local authorities than with federal ones. The concepts that were widely supported in the presidential speeches should be reflected in governors and heads of local self-government bodies (this mainly concerns mechanisms for strengthening the role of society in public administration). Only in this case will it be possible to talk about broad prospects for consolidation. Nowadays, Russia is on the threshold of a moral society. The paradigm of wellbeing and material satisfaction is outdated. Changes are inevitable, but can occur in two areas: either to a moral state in which the most important ideological and valuable program is a centrist structure that takes into account the legal and moral interests of all groups and members of society and optimizes this complex; social system or collapse, the destruction of the national state and its main characteristic from the point of view of international law, namely sovereignty [30]. The broader nature of the dynamics of social health will largely depend on the extent to which the president will realize the potential of a consolidating society and strengthening trust in state and public institutions. The issue of preserving and improving health is particularly relevant for the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation. The Arctic regions, at first glance, make up less than 2% of the total living population of Russia, and at the same time, they are regions rich in tremendous natural resources. However, today it is very important to develop the Arctic. In the Strategy of Spatial Development of the Russian Federation until 2025, the Arctic region of Russia is designated as a geostrategic region. Therefore, the study of the relationship between the health status of citizens and the socio-economic development of the Arctic regions is of particular interest, mainly from the point of view of its practical application in the decision-making industry [31]. Conclusion Special attention should be paid to the importance of individual human behavior in determining social health. Each person has unique health factors, depending on age, gender, social status, and financial situation. Lifestyle plays an important role in a healthy lifestyle. Acknowledgments: There is nothing to be declared. Ethical Permissions: There is nothing to be declared. Conflicts of Interests: There is nothing to be declared. Authors' Contribution: Shlyk K. (First Author), Assistant Researcher (34%); Belonozhko L. (Second Author), Statistical Analyst (33%); Gyurdzhinyan A. (Third Author), Introduction Writer/Discussion Writer (33%). Funding/Support: There is nothing to be declared. | ||
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