ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Among other things, changes in the structure of forensic medical expert material serve as an indicator of dynamic processes in society . The levels of injuries and violent and nonviolent death somehow depend on the state of the economy and health care in the region and the state as a whole . In recent years, the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was proclaimed as a pandemic with tangible social and economic damage to States, has been one of the determining factors . AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the dynamics of the volume and structure of violent death in the Russian Federation over the past 10 years, including the pandemic period, using the megalopolis example . MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study reviewed the annual reports of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of St . Petersburg using data grouping, frequency analysis, correlation analysis, comparison, system analysis, and inductive generalization . RESULTS: Over the past 10 years, several significant changes have occurred in St . Petersburg in the scope and structure of forensic medical investigations of violent deaths . The main positive trend was a decreased absolute and relative number of cases of violent death . Statistically significantly (p <0 .05) decreased number of cases of transport injuries, injuries resulting from the action of blunt and sharp objects, gunshot, thermal injury, and mechanical asphyxia, as well as poisoning with ethanol and carbon monoxide, significantly decreased infant mortality, and fewer unidentified and unclaimed corpses were observed . Additionally, a steady increase in the number of drug poisoning was found, and the fatal injury level due to falling from a height remained consistently high . The background incidence of COVID-19 in 2020 was 2 .4–3 .2% . CONCLUSION: The proportion of cases of falling from a height, thermal burns, and strangulation with a noose increased among the dead with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, and transport (primarily rail), gunshot and explosive injuries, cases of drowning, poisoning with drugs, and alcohol detection in the biological environments of the body of the victims were less common . © Eco-Vector, 2022.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the work is to study the dynamics of the volume and structure of forensic medical research on cases of non-violent death in the Russian Federation for the period from 2016 to 2020 using the example of two regions of the Federation that differ in socio-economic terms. The material for the study was the annual reports of the «St. Medical Examination¼ and «Novgorod Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination¼. It was established that during the study period in St. Petersburg and the Novgorod region, non-violent death was dominant in the structure of forensic medical examinations of corpses, accounting for about 80%. The leading place was occupied by diseases of the circulatory system and neoplasms, they were more common among residents of the Novgorod region. A positive fact was that since 2016, the residents of the Novgorod region, in contrast to the residents of St. Petersburg, there has been a trend towards a decrease in the number of deaths from diseases of the cardiovascular system. Mortality from oncological diseases increased from year to year in both subjects of the Federation. The most rare causes of death were infectious diseases and diseases of the nervous system. For both groups of diseases, higher mortality was also among residents of the Novgorod region. Both in St. Petersburg and in the Novgorod region there was a gradual decrease in the total number of cases of stillbirths and deaths of children under the age of 1 year. For the entire study period, this indicator, as for most diseases, was higher in the Novgorod region. In the year of the spread of a new coronavirus infection, mortality from most non-communicable diseases increased.
Subject(s)
Forensic Medicine , Neoplasms , Cadaver , Cause of Death , Child , Humans , RussiaABSTRACT
There are observations that right after total quarantine measures were introduced, there was no growth in number of suicides, but a situation remains unclear when it comes down to new waves in the pandemic development. Our research goal was to estimate risks of suicide in heterogeneous population groups in 2020, that is, from the pandemic start and up to the second wave rise. We analyzed data on completed suicides in Saint Petersburg, Udmurtia Republic (Russia), and Odessa region (Ukraine), 6375 cases overall among population groups with total number of people being equal to 9,216 thousand starting from January 01, 2016 to December 31, 2020. Confidence intervals for frequencies as per months (per 100,000 people) in 2020 were calculated as per Wilson and compared with average ones calculated for 2016–2019. There was a decrease in frequency of completed suicides in all three population groups during a period when the strictest quarantine measures were valid;by the mid-summer the trend normalized or there was even a slight increase. When the second pandemic wave came, changes were multidirectional;in particular, in Saint Petersburg there was another decrease by the end of the year, the most apparent and statistically significant among men whereas there were short-term rises in Udmurtia and Odessa. Our comparison performed for population groups with initially different levels of suicides confirms that right after a crisis starts, suicidal behavior becomes less frequent among people;however, as a response to the second pandemic wave, we can expect both falls and rises in number of suicides and it requires more intense preventive activities. © Rozanov V.A., Semenova N.V., Kamenshchikov Yu.G., Vuks A.Ya., Freize V.V., Malyshko L.V., Zakharov S.E., Kamenshchikov A.Yu., Isakov V.D., Krivda G.F., Yagmurov O.D., Neznanov N.G., 2021