In case of illness Russians still prefer going to public hospitals rather than to private medical institutions. An overwhelmoing part of the population prefers self-treatment.
MOSCOW, December 6, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning how Russians tackle diseases: how many respondents go to medical institutions, state-owned or private; how many respondents choose self-treatment and other strategies.
Services of free public hospitals are still more popular among Russians than the services of private centers. If needed, more than half of Russians (55%) go to state-owned hospitals, and the share of such respondents is increasing year by year (in 2008 - 50%). Typical clients of public hospitals are retired persons (68%) and Russians with average level of income (62%).
Only 6% of respondents prefer getting treatment in a private clinic. Those who use the services of private hospitals are middle-aged Russians (9%) and respondents with high level of income (10%).
The overwhelming majority of Russians prefer combating diseases on their own (33%). Self-treatment is chosen by respondents aged 25-34 (38%), and Russians with an income lower than average (37%).
Only few Russians take a laissez-faire attitude expecting that the disease will pass without treatment (3%), or go to traditional healers (2%).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on April 15-16, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
What do you do when you get ill? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||
July 2006 | March 2008 | April 2009 | April 2012 | |
Going to free public hospital/clinic | 52 | 50 | 51 | 55 |
Self-treatment | 37 | 35 | 33 | 33 |
Going to private hospital/center | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 |
Using traditional healing (alternative medicine) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Doing nothing, taking a laissez-faire attitude | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
Hard to tell | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
What do you do when you get ill? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||
| Total respondents | Men | Women |
Going to free public hospital/clinic | 55 | 53 | 56 |
Going to private hospital/center | 6 | 5 | 8 |
Self-treatment | 33 | 34 | 32 |
Using traditional healing (alternative medicine) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Doing nothing, taking a laissez-faire attitude | 4 | 7 | 2 |
Hard to tell | 1 | 1 | 1 |
What do you do when you get ill? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | 60 and more |
Going to free public hospital/clinic | 55 | 52 | 50 | 48 | 53 | 68 |
Going to private hospital/center | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 4 |
Self-treatment | 33 | 36 | 38 | 35 | 35 | 21 |
Using traditional healing (alternative medicine) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Doing nothing, taking a laissez-faire attitude | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
Hard to tell | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
What do you do when you get ill? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Low income | Income below average | Average income | Income above average | High income |
Going to free public hospital | 55 | 55 | 52 | 62 | 55 | 54 |
Going to private hospital/center | 6 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 10 |
Self-treatment | 33 | 37 | 37 | 28 | 32 | 30 |
Using traditional healing (alternative medicine) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Doing nothing, taking a laissez-faire attitude | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Hard to tell | 1 | 1 |
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
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!