The share of Russians leading a healthy lifestyle has decreased during the pandemic

In 2020, the number of Russians adhering to healthy habits has decreased by a quarter. Among the regions with the largest number of healthy lifestyle supporters are Ingushetia and Sevastopol,

Striving for the golden mean

In 2020, which was the brunt of the pandemic, the number of adherents of a healthy lifestyle in RUSSIA decreased by a quarter, according to a study by the international audit and consulting network FinExpertiza (available from RBC), based on Rosstat data. If in 2019 there were 12% of the total population aged 15 years and over (14.5 million people), then in 2020 their number decreased to 8.9% (10.8 million), that is, by 3.7 million people.

At the same time, the number of anti-eating people, that is, people leading an unhealthy lifestyle, according to the criteria of Rosstat, decreased by a third, from 50.1% in 2019 to 33.5% in 2020. “In fact, the Russians began to strive for the golden mean - they didn’t limit themselves much, but they didn’t allow themselves too much,” the study says. “About 20 million inveterate opponents of a healthy lifestyle moved into the zone of “satisfactory” healthy lifestyle in 2020.”

When making calculations, FinExpertiza was guided by the updated information provided by Rosstat on the number of healthy lifestyle fans in the regions for 2019 and 2020 (RBC has the June answer from the federal service to experts). These data differ from those published on the agency's website in December last year. RBC sent a request to Rosstat.

A sample study of the HEALTH status of the population was conducted by Rosstat in August-September 2020, covering 60,000 households. The sample size and parameters make it possible to extrapolate the research data to the entire adult population of Russia, so FinExpertiza was able to estimate the total number of people in the country committed to a healthy lifestyle.

The national project "Demography", the budget of which is 3.11 trillion rubles, involves the achievement of such targets as an increase in the proportion of citizens leading a healthy lifestyle and an increase in healthy life expectancy to 67 years; the number of Russians leading a healthy lifestyle should be 12%. In accordance with the government decree, within the framework of this national project, until 2024, an annual selective observation of the health status of the population will be carried out.

Who is considered a stalker

Rosstat, in accordance with the methodology approved in 2019, divides people into three groups according to the principle of attitude to a healthy lifestyle. People with a “high commitment to a healthy lifestyle” include Russians who simultaneously follow five principles:

Do not smoke; consume at least 400 g of vegetables and fruits per day; have at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week; consume no more than 5 g of SALT per day; drink no more than 168 g of pure ALCOHOL per week for men (about 0.4 l of 40% alcohol, or two bottles of wine with a strength of 12 degrees, or 3 liters of beer with a strength of 4 degrees) and no more than 84 g for women (0.2 l strong alcohol, or one bottle of wine, or 1.5 liters of beer).

The adherents of a “satisfactory healthy lifestyle” included those who do not smoke and at the same time do not comply with one of the four remaining rules. Russians who smoke and violate two or more of the remaining four rules are classified by Rosstat as anti-smokers. In assessing the overall decline in the number of lifestyles, the study only included people with a high adherence to this lifestyle.

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In 2020, the number of Russians who are seriously committed to a healthy lifestyle has decreased in most regions - to 55 out of 85, the study also says. The Nenets Autonomous Okrug showed the worst dynamics: there are no people who strictly adhere to all five rules of a healthy lifestyle (minus 100%). FinExpertiza clarified that this is partly due to the fact that even before the pandemic, healthy lifestyles were not particularly popular in the region - there were only about 700 people with a high commitment to this lifestyle (with a high proportion of moderate healthy lifestyles at the same time). Also, the Magadan region lost almost all strict zozhniks (minus 99%, or minus 17 thousand people).

In addition, this anti-rating included Buryatia, Tver region, Chuvashia, Kemerovo, Voronezh, Orenburg, Belgorod and Yaroslavl regions.

In 30 regions, during the year of the covid-19 pandemic, the number of people who follow all five healthy lifestyle rules, on the contrary, has increased. The best dynamics was shown by North Ossetia: there the number of zhozhnikov increased six times at once, the increase amounted to about 109 thousand people. Next in the ranking are the Sakhalin, Tambov and Bryansk regions, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Oryol region, Sevastopol, the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Astrakhan Region.

Slayers and sitters

The study revealed another noteworthy point: the number of healthy lifestyle adherents in Russia in 2020 decreased mainly due to women. If in 2019 there were 2.3 times more female workers than female workers, then in 2020 the gap was reduced to 1.3 times, FinExpertiza found out. Thus, according to the latest up-to-date data, there are only one third more women leading a healthy lifestyle in Russia than men.

There are more men who are passionate about healthy lifestyles than women, only in 13 regions - in the Altai Republic (by 74%), Yakutia (by 47%), the Jewish Autonomous Region (by 27%), Chuvashia (by 25%), Udmurtia (by 24%), Karachay-Cherkessia (by 24%), Tuva (by 22%), Adygea (by 18%), Mordovia (by 16%), Voronezh (by 14%) and Omsk (by 10%) regions, Chechnya (by 7%) and Sevastopol (by 6%). In seven more regions, the number of healthy lifestyle adherents of both sexes is approximately equal, and women dominate in the remaining regions. In the Magadan region and Chukotka, in 2020, no male migrant workers were recorded at all.

The healthiest regions

The ranking of regions with the largest share of healthy lifestyle adherents has changed somewhat since 2019. In 2020, it included Sevastopol, North Ossetia and Tatarstan. Crimea and Chuvashia, on the contrary, left the top ten subjects with the largest share of people. The top 10 last year also included Ingushetia, Adygea, Kaliningrad and Pskov regions, Stavropol Territory, Kurgan and Volgograd regions.

As already mentioned, in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the proportion of people who strictly follow a healthy lifestyle has dropped to zero. In the Magadan region, people who observe all five rules of a healthy lifestyle are 0.1% of the population, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug - 0.3%. The anti-rating top ten also includes Tuva, Kaluga region, Yakutia, Kemerovo region, Altai Republic, Buryatia and Tver region.

At the same time, in Moscow and St. Petersburg , the share of strict health-conscious people is below the national level - 6.6 and 7.9%, respectively.