Health self-assessment of Ukrainian population as a result of Chornobyl accident on the late phase

Abstract

The objective was to perform scientific analysis of received data from questionnaire survey of Ukrainian population and to estimate dependence of self-assessment of respondents’ health on different factors at the late phase after the Chornobyl accident. Methods. Data collection was carried out using specially designed questionnaire which was offered for young people and their parents in Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Odesa regions, also in Kyiv city and Slavutych town. Results preprocessing was performed using standard programs in Microsoft Office 2010. Using contingency tables, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients, we assessed depending of health self-assessment in Ukrainian surveyed population from different factors in the late phase of the Chornobyl accident. Results. According to the survey results obtained database contains 2918 correctly completed questionnaires; 36% of respondents were parents, 64% - schoolchildren and students. It was found statistically significant relationship: between health level and sex (χ2 = 163.31; р<0.001) – the most male respondents assess their health status more positively, unlike women; between health self-assessment and educational level (rS = 0.99; р<0.001), where much of the respondents with secondary education estimate their health worse than respondents with higher education; between health self-assessment and evaluation of radiation contamination of territory where respondents live (rS =0.24; р<0.001); and also between health self-assessment and assessment of radiation content in consumed food products (χ2 = 118.03; р<0.001). So regardless of health self-assessment surveyed Ukrainian population believe that they live on radiation contamination territories and consume food with radionuclides. One third of respondents with “good” and almost one third with “excellent” health self-assessment are confident of strong affects on their health and the health of their family members from Chornobyl, significant relationship (rS =0.33; р<0.001). It was identified significant relationship (χ2 =25.31; р<0.001) between health self-assessment of Ukrainian people and existence of the Exclusion Zone as legacy of accident on Chornobyl NPP; 91.52% of respondents with assessment “bad” and 81.75% with assessment “excellent” consider in such way.