Dynamics of mortality of the Russian population from the main classes of diseases of exogenous etiology

The paper investigates the dynamics of mortality of the Russian population from infectious and parasitic diseases, diseases of the respiratory and digestive organs. The relevance of the research is determined by a global pandemic, recorded for the first time after the completion of the first stage of the epidemiological transition in developed countries. The main provisions of the concept of epidemiological transition and the specifics of the transition in Russia are considered. The situation for the thirty-year period 1990–2019, characterized by multidirectional dynamics of life expectancy of the Russian population, for which annual statistics are available, is analyzed in more detail, in order to identify the situation with exogenous mortality in the run-up to the pandemic. Among the six main classes of causes of death, the most significant increase over the period under review was for diseases of the digestive system and infectious and parasitic diseases. In the conditions of the "reverse epidemiological transition", there was a twofold decrease in the ratio of mortality from infectious diseases and diseases of the circulatory system: from 1:51.8 in 1991 to 1:25.6 in 2019. The share of deaths from infections in the structure of deaths from causes increased to 1.8%. Even more significantly, the ratio of deaths from cardiovascular diseases to deaths from diseases of the digestive system decreased by two and a half times: from 1:21.6 in 1990 to 1:8.6 in 2019. The share of these diseases in the structure of mortality increased to 5.5%. Since 2006 diseases of the digestive system occupy the fourth position in the structure of Russian mortality by causes, pushing respiratory diseases to the fifth place. Mortality from respiratory diseases, which trends over the 30 years under review repeat the vector of the total mortality of the Russian population, and which is characterized by the maximum decrease among the main groups of causes of death, increased the gap with the level of mortality from diseases of the circulatory system from 1:11.1 to 1: 14.2 in 1991–2019. Its share in the structure of mortality decreased to 3.3%.