Disability indicators for the social protection and rehabilitation measures in the population of the Russian Federation

BACKGROUND: To improve social policy and to study the mechanisms of public administration, it is important to analyze the trends in the development of the social phenomenon –population disability. The need for a systematic analysis in the planning and regulation of social protection measures for people with disability and rehabilitation to minimize the risks of negative socioeconomic consequences leads to a long-term comprehensive study and analysis of disability indicators in the population of the Russian Federation.

AIM: To identify the medical and social characteristics of the state and trends of disability in the Russian Federation and St. Petersburg for 2015–2019.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study analyzed people with primary disability living in St. Petersburg and the Russian Federation. Data were obtained from the State Statistical Reporting 7 Social Security. Analytical, expert assessment methods, and statistical analysis were performed.

RESULTS: During the study period (2014–2019), the level of primary disability in the adult population of the Russian Federation tended to decrease: in 2015, it was 58.9 per 10 thousand adult populations, and in 2019, it was 53.1 per 10 thousand people. The dynamics showed an uneven rate of decrease in the level of primary disability, with a peak decline in 2016. In the analysis of the indicators of people with primary disability by age, for over 5 years, the proportion of people of working age and with disabilities decreased from 46.8% in 2015 to 42.3% in 2019. A study of the need for vocational rehabilitation measures for people with disability, specifically the need to create special jobs for the employment of people with primary and secondary disabilities, showed that medical and social specialists identified the need to create special jobs for 27.7% of the analyzed population (n=15,977), and the largest share of recommendations on the need to create a special workplace was issued to people with secondary disability, i.e., 89.8% (n=14,341). The share of the recommendations on the creation of special jobs for people with secondary disability was 2.6 times higher than for those with primary disability, with an average of 72.3% (n=41,769), and recommendations were drawn up mainly for people with secondary disability, with 88.4% (n=36,937).

CONCLUSIONS: At present, it is relevant to plan the socioeconomic costs for the implementation of social and vocational rehabilitation programs of people with disability and the creation of conditions for their employment in special jobs. This enables the delivery of organized and optimal rehabilitation for the constituents of the Russian Federation.