Analysis of newly diagnosed disabilities dynamics among medical workers in the Irkutsk region from 2003 to 2021 period

BACKGROUND: The specificity of the professional activities of medical workers is one of the main reasons for their high morbidity, including due to the influence of unfavorable factors in the working environment. The need to reduce labor losses in the industry necessitates the study and analysis of the disability status of doctors within the framework of long-term observation. AIM: A study of the dynamics of primary disability indicators of doctors working in their specialty in the Irkutsk region at the time of examination, in comparison with the primary disability of the adult population of the Irkutsk region for 19 years from 2003 to 2021. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational retrospective continuous study of primary disability indicators of working doctors in the Irkutsk region for 19 years (2003–2021) was conducted. Analytical, statistical, data copying, and expert assessment methods were used. RESULTS: During the study period, 1,703 people working as doctors in the Irkutsk region were recognized as disabled for the first time. The average long-term intensive rate of primary disability of doctors for 19 years averaged 75.4 (±7.55) per 10 thousand working doctors, which is 17% lower than the same indicator for the adult population of the region. The following diseases took the first place among doctors during 2003–2011: diseases of the circulatory system, and over the past ten years since 2012 — malignant neoplasms. CONCLUSIONS: The level of primary disability in physicians responds more quickly and sensitively to changes in social legislation, and is less affected by changes in the number of physicians in the region than the corresponding rates in the adult population of the region as a whole. The nosological structure of doctors disabled mainly coincides with the indicators of the adult population.