The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) has prepared updated data on the health of residents in Slovenian municipalities. By enabling better accessibility and accessibility of health data at the local community level, NIJZ promotes health promotion and disease prevention in the environments where people live and work. Indicators at the annual level or in multi-year averages include data from the first pandemic year of 2020, except for new cancer cases, which include data from 2018. This time, displays and explanations are available in the new modern online application at obcine.nijz.si. The website brings many improvements and new possibilities: easier and more advanced navigation, interactive display of data, different ways of comparison between municipalities and by years, plotting of time trends and new current content.
Some indicators show improvement in health
Compared to the previous publication, we can see an improvement in health indicators in several areas at the level of Slovenia. For the fourth year in a row, we have seen a lower number of hospitalizations due to asthma in children and adolescents and stroke. A decreasing trend is also visible in the number of diseases directly attributable to alcohol.
We are again recording a decrease in the number of suicides. Compared to the publication from 2016, mortality due to suicide in Slovenia decreased by almost 4 percentage points. At the same time, the trend of decreasing the number of people receiving medication for mental disorders is continuing.
In the case of some indicators, the impact of the pandemic on otherwise desirable trends should not be neglected
A smaller number of residents were receiving medicines for high blood pressure and anti-clotting medicines. At the same time, for the first time in six years, the curve of recipients of diabetes medication turned downwards. This may indicate a lower incidence of the listed diseases during the observed period or, more likely, poorer access to health care during the pandemic, as a result of which fewer new cases were detected and the treatment of chronic patients was partially interrupted.
The data in this publication show that the number of people injured in transport accidents has slightly decreased, which is partly the result of lower traffic density. We can also see a decrease in the number of home help users, which may reflect the effects of the covid-19 epidemic, which is manifested both in a decrease in demand and in a poorer organization of home help.
Other indicators point to poorer health
We have noticed a deterioration in some indicators at the level of Slovenia. In line with expectations, the mortality rate increased in most Slovenian municipalities, as the five-year averages cover the year 2020 with a high excess mortality rate due to the pandemic.
The number of hip fractures in residents over 65 has increased. The number of new cancer cases continues to rise, among which we see an increase in lung cancer and breast cancer. At the same time, the rate of newly discovered cancers of the colon and rectum, in contrast to other locations of cancer, is steadily decreasing.
For the seventh year in a row, the trend of increasing sickness absence continues in Slovenia, which increased noticeably compared to 2016 and increased on average by a good 4 days of incapacity for work per employed resident.
We detected a marked deterioration in the indicators of physical fitness and children's overnutrition. At the same time, it is important to take into account the fact that the data for 2020 is incomplete, because due to the restrictive measures of the covid-19 pandemic, more than half of the schools did not carry out measurements for the sports card. Therefore, some municipalities do not have the data, while in some municipalities the published data is measured only on part of the population of elementary school students.
The indicators of cancer screening programs for the first time in several years show a lower participation in 2020. Compared to the previous period, the response rate in the Svit program decreased by a good percentage point, and the screening of women in the ZORA program by almost 3 percentage points. Although the screening rate for the DORA program decreased by a small percentage point, it still remains above the desired level (70%) of examinees in the target population.
More detailed information can be found on the renovated website obcine.nijz.si .
News
- In the central content of this year's short publications for municipalities, we touched on the topic of the covid-19 pandemic, which caused not only a global health crisis, but also social and economic distress. The SI-PANDA survey, which we conducted at NIJZ with the aim of understanding people's behavior during the covid-19 pandemic, showed a certain deterioration in the lifestyle of the inhabitants of Slovenia, a decrease in contacts with a personal doctor and a deterioration in the mental health of the inhabitants. According to the results of the survey, the negative impact of the pandemic or measures to control it is particularly noticeable among younger residents between 18 and 29 years of age. You can find more detailed results of the research among the selected contents on the website.
- We publish the latest values of three indicators that show the oral health, noisy environment and excessive nutrition of adult residents of Slovenian municipalities. These indicators are derived from survey surveys that are carried out in multi-year cycles, therefore the previous publications of these indicators in the publications of
2018 and 2019. New data at the level of Slovenia show an increased share of overfed people and an increased share of people who rate their environment as noisy. At the same time, we notice an increased proportion of people who brush their teeth at least twice a day. - In this year's publication, for the first time, we are publishing an indicator that shows the proportion of people who have access to (children's) playgrounds and recreation areas. This is an indicator from a set that we developed to gain insight into the assessment of the local environment by the residents of municipalities. Our living space consists of natural and built
the surroundings, residents and visitors of settlements and the constant interaction and interweaving of activities that we carry out in the local environment. A functional, orderly and healthy local environment plays an important role in people's physical, mental and social well-being. Monitoring such indicators is highly recommended for the municipality, as a supportive, orderly and safe local community provides many opportunities for quality living and improving the physical and psychological well-being of its residents.
Be careful when interpreting data on changes in indicators
Since we are publishing the indicators this year for the seventh year in a row, this also enables a comparison over time. However, it is necessary to interpret the changes between periods carefully and to take into account the fact that in municipalities with a small number of inhabitants, those indicators that show less frequent events, such as illness and death due to individual causes, fluctuate strongly even in a few cases more or less. We tried to balance this phenomenon by calculating indicators from multi-year averages (in some cases also 10-year averages). Data for each individual municipality and the calculated absolute and relative differences between last year's and this year's publication are available in a table on the Health in the Municipality website.
We invite you to visit the website obcine.nijz.si and find out how healthy you are in your municipality!
