Personal health resources of the population of a Russian region: Impact assessment and typology

The lack of a well-established healthy lifestyle model among most Russians, combined with insufficient personal responsibility for one’s own health, calls for a closer look at internal (protective) factors. This study seeks to assess the influence of salutogenic factors on health indicators and to identify population types according to the degree of their expression. The empirical base draws on the sociological monitoring of the physical health of the Vologda Region population conducted in 2026 (N = 1,500). A review of international and Russian research on the impact of salutogenic factors on health shows that their relationship with physical health and overall health remains underexplored. Using factor analysis of the survey data, we identify three salutogenic factors: “self-sufficiency and sociability”, “striving for knowledge and development”, and “passivity and externality”. We then design logistic regression models in which the dependent variables are good self-rated health, the presence of chronic diseases, and sickness absence from work, while the independent variables include the salutogenic factors alongside socio-demographic, socio-economic, and behavioral indicators. To test the assumption that salutogenic factors affect health indirectly through health self-care, we also design a separate logistic model with health self-care as an independent variable. No statistically significant association is found between salutogenic factors and self-rated health; however, all three factors are associated with the presence of chronic diseases, self-sufficiency and sociability is associated with sickness absence from work, and striving for knowledge and development and passivity and externality are associated with health self-care. Three population types are identified according to the expression of salutogenic health factors: “cognitively deficient type”, “salutogenic-resource type”, and “socially inert type”. Their distinct profiles make it possible to treat them as new target groups for health protection policy.