Do you respect me?

Sociologists have noted a correlation between self-esteem and life expectancy of Russians

The latest economic crisis will make itself felt in two or three years, causing an unexpected jump in mortality among working-age Russians who survived this shock. And the point here is not a decrease in earnings and a “collapse” of material consumption in general, according to the authors of the “Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Health of the Population” (RMES), who presented the results of their observations over the past 18 years yesterday at the Higher School of Economics. Much more important, according to Russian and American scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (also taking part in the project), are intangible factors: the level of self-esteem, a sense of recognition and relevance in society, a clear understanding of the prospects for the next few years. The correlation of these factors with life expectancy, in contrast to income level and access to specialized medical care, is currently considered scientifically proven.

“When the RLMS project just began, it was a study of economic indicators, it was assumed that it would not be difficult to prove their impact on life expectancy. But almost 20 years later, we note that life expectancy and the level of material security after a certain point (when no one is starving anymore and dangerous infections that in previous times killed millions of people have been defeated) are practically not correlated,” notes the head of the center for social policy Institute of World Economy and International Relations RAS Evgeniy Gontmakher. According to him, the connection between wealth and life expectancy exists only indirectly and lies in the field of mass psychology.

The authors of the study note that over the past ten years, no serious economic shocks comparable to the events of the early 90s of the last century have been observed in Russia. Nevertheless, today Russians feel very uncomfortable psychologically. Poverty is now the lowest in all post-Soviet times - only 3% of the country's citizens can be classified as poor. True, due to the crisis, a slight decrease in income is recorded: from November 2008 to November 2009, the average real income of households involved in the study decreased by 6%. But this is the first rollback since the 1998 crisis, the study authors note. Moreover, the poorest Russians have since even been able to increase their incomes by 16%, while the richest have lost up to 20%, which hypothetically should have somewhat reduced the stratification in society. This is confirmed by data on the difference in income and expenses of the richest and poorest of the surveyed households. In 2008, the income gap was 6.7 times, and in 2009 it decreased to 4.6 times. The richest spent 9.1 times more than the poor in 2008, and 8.9 times last year.

Due to the crisis, all Russians had to reduce their expenses by an average of 12% for the period from November 2008 to November 2009. However, even these “reduced” expenditures are 22% above the 1993 level, recognized as the lowest point during the observation period. The nature of consumption has also changed: in 1993, Russians spent on average 73% of their income on food, but now only 44%. At the same time, the availability of all kinds of specialized types of medical care and medicines has only increased thanks to the national project “Health” and the state program.

But scientists are confident that these most easily calculated economic indicators have a very insignificant impact on the life expectancy and morbidity of our fellow citizens. Strictly speaking, their influence on how long people live in Russia has not been proven at all. The same cannot be said about such seemingly non-primary factors for physical survival as the unemployment rate, the availability of durable goods (cars, real estate) and tourist trips. Not only the lack of opportunity to acquire material assets from these categories, but also the lack of prospects for acquiring them in the foreseeable future causes severe stress among citizens, notes one of the authors of the study, leading economist at the Center for Economic and Financial Research, Irina Denisova.

“There are many works, including our study, where, at the level of hypothesis, a connection is established between a decrease in social status and mortality rates,” said Ms. Denisova. According to her, one of the important achievements of the RLMS is the fact that it clearly shows such a connection. “We introduced a nine-step scale for respondents to answer the question: “Are you respected in society?” and a whole list of questions on alcohol consumption and smoking. The first question shows the level of self-esteem and, accordingly, the level of stress of the respondent, the second two are fundamental from the point of view of the most common causes of death in our country,” explains the researcher. Their relationship with life expectancy turned out to be provable and strict: the difference in life expectancy between smokers and non-smokers is on average eight years, for drinkers and non-drinkers - eight to ten years, for those who feel appreciated and offended by insufficient respect from society - four years.

“We were able to show that life expectancy is primarily influenced by a person’s psychological state,” Evgeniy Gontmakher told Vremya Novostey. - However, it does not exist in isolation from the material side of life. But it is very difficult to prove mathematically what exactly this connection is.” According to him, the consequences of the current crisis for the health of Russians, which can be seen from statistical data, will occur in two to three years. “Depression from the awareness of the loss of prospects and the confidence that in the foreseeable future you will be able to provide yourself with the lost level of consumption grows gradually, like a snowball. And this process was launched,” explains Mr. Gontmakher.

Galina PAPERNAYA