METHODOLOGICAL BASESFOR DEFINITION OF ECONOMIC LOSSESFROM OCCUPATIONAL DISEASESIN THE POPULATION OF UKRAINE

The assessment of economic losses of the society due to occupational diseases recorded at enterprises, in the Fund of social insurance from accidents at work and occupational diseases, in the health system as well as because of premature mortality and low life quality is highlighted in the paper. The values of burden of diseases, recommended for use by experts of the World Bank, are presented. The years, lost due to untimely death of patients with occupational diseases, engaged in selected types of economic activity, have been defined. The purpose of this study was to develop a method of defining one of the components of indirect losses of the society, i.e. lost years of healthy life due to occupational diseases. For this, the available methodical elaborations have been used, corrected and adapted to modern social and economic conditions. Methods. The list of main items of losses from occupational diseases includes: 1) Expenses of enterprises (Ve ); 2) Expenses of the Fund for social insurance and the Pension Fund (Vf ); 3) Expenses of the budget in the public health system (Vh ). The expenses of enterprises from occupational diseases include such components:1)Expenses on re-qualification of the suffered workers in the case of the lost of them general or professional work ability and expenses on education of new workers, accepted instead of the suffered (Ek ); 2) Losses from the deficiency of products in the period of substitution of a patient by the worker of the similar level of qualification (Ez ). Results. The calculation made possible to conclude that losses from occupational diseases for enterprises, the Fund of social insurance, the Pension Fund and the budget of the health system in 2010 amounted to 4094,4 mln UAH or 0,37 % GDP. According to the data of the Centre of Medical Statistics of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine the number of the dead in 2010, due to occupational diseases with the established cause-effect relation on their professional activity, made in Ukraine 313 individuals. The majority of dead were workers of the underground coal mining. In the anamnesis of the most of them there were recorded different chronic diseases of the respiratory system and pneumoconiosis, caused by chemical substances, gases, organic or nonorganic dusts. The age of the dead ranged from 38 in uranium and thorium ore mining to 84 years in coal mining. Among the dead only 15% survived up to the age of the life expectancy in Ukraine and only 2% – to the age, provided by the international standard. Conclusion. 1. The calculation made it possible to conclude that losses from occupational diseases for enterprises, the Fund of social insurance, the Pension Fund and the budget of the health system amounted in 2010 to 4094,4 mln UAH or 0,37 % GDP. 2. At present DALY is considered to be a unified index of the burden of diseases, making possible: a) to assess medicosocial losses of the society not only due to morbidity, disability or premature mortality, but, also, due to any combination of the above-mentioned causes; b) to assess direct and indirect economic losses from any causes or their combinations; c) to ground recommendations on the determination of strategic priorities in the national public health system. By the present time DALY is used insufficiently in Ukraine, because of not adapted method for its assessment.