Assessment of the disease burden in the region

Today, the increase in labor productivity, and the stable reproduction of the population are crucial factors in competitiveness of countries. In this regard, the adoption of measures on strengthening public health, providing the possibility of participation of the maximum number of workers in the production of economic goods is the major strategic task of the public healthcare system. The importance and potentially greater economic effectiveness of disease prevention compared to their treatment is observed in the studies of medical, psychological, and economic nature that take into account medical and behavioral prevention which implies healthy living. Establishing the amount of funding for preventive medicine is the first step toward the creation of an integrated system of health care nationwide, in the regions and individual municipalities. Being aware of the methodological complexity of this issue, in this paper, we proceeded from the assumption that the increase in spending on prevention should result in the decrease in the cost of treatment of diseases. In this regard, special attention is paid on calculating the economic loss from temporary disability of employed persons. On the example of the Vologda Oblast, the following calculations were made: the costs associated with providing payments to citizens due to temporary disability, the loss of benefits due to the underproduction of GRP, and the amount of direct cost of providing medical care in connection with the morbidity rate in different types of institutions. The paper provides the data about the most “costly” classes of morbidity, which do not coincide with a list of the most common diagnoses and causes of death. Given the fact that they include diseases that complicate pregnancy and childbirth, a more extensive use of tools of preventive medicine is a strategically important issue for the development of the healthcare system. Based on the comparison of the values of economic burden of disease and the region’s expenditure on preventive care, an assumption is made concerning the lack of financing of this area of medicine. In its final part, the paper presents recommendations on priorities in improving the management of financial provision of preventive medicine, the assessment of the effectiveness of which is a task for a separate study.