According to most of Russians, the main recipes for feeling good are refusal of bad habits and timely visits to doctors. Russians blame themselves for feeling bad.
MOSCOW, August 9, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing the attitudes of Russians towards their personal health, as well as what they think the poor state of health depends on.
In order to take care of health, Russians, as before, try not to have bad habits (33%) and try to visit doctors in a timely manner (32%). There is an increase in the share of those who try to eat good food (from 16 to 23% over four years), as well as those who undergo medical examination (from 12 to 16%). The share of those who do sports, watch TV programs about healthy lifestyle or read special literature are 15% (for each). Every fifth respondent do nothing if he/she does not feel well (20%); 11% say that they do not take care about their health.
Those who tend to put more attention to their health are basically women. The number of women who do not have bad habits or eat good food is higher than the number of men who try to do the same (40% versus 25% among men; (27% versus 18%, respectively).
As before, Russians blame themselves for feeling bad (35% versus 41% in 2008); they also point out low living standards as a reason for the poor state of health (30%). Twenty-five percent of respondents believe that the reason is the lack of qualified medical staff; 18% blame the government. Ten percent of respondents think that people have been sick forever, and there is no one to blame for the poor state of health.
Those who blame themselves for the poor state of health are young Russians (44%). Russians of pre-retirement and retirement age often mention low living standards (36-37), or blame the government (22-23%) for feeling bad.
The Initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on April 14-15, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
If you take care of your health, what exactly do you do? (close-ended question, any number of answers) | ||||
| 2012 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006 |
I regularly check up my health and undergo health examination | 16 | 12 | 12 | 11 |
I do physical training; I do sports | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 |
I eat good food | 23 | 17 | 16 | 16 |
I watch health shows and read special literature | 15 | 18 | 17 | 16 |
I do not drink alcohol and I do not smoke | 33 | 30 | 32 | 31 |
If I am sick, I immediately go to doctors and I do what they tell me to do | 32 | 28 | 31 | 28 |
I am healthy; I do not need to take care of my health | 11 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
I cannot say I am healthy, but I do not do anything special if I do not feel well | 20 | 23 | 20 | 24 |
Hard to tell | 2 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
In your opinion, who/what is to blame for the poor state of health of people? | |||
| 2012 | 2009 | 2008 |
We have to blame ourselves for feeling bad | 35 | 41 | 37 |
Low living standards or lack money | 32 | 34 | 41 |
Poor environment | 30 | 29 | 25 |
Low qualification and inattentiveness of medical staff | 25 | 21 | 21 |
Government | 18 | 15 | 22 |
No one; people have been sick forever | 10 | 10 | 7 |
Diseases come from God to punish us for our sins | 3 | 2 | 3 |
Hard to tell | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory.