Indicators at the annual level or in multi-year averages include data in 2022, the exception is indicators on new cancer cases, which include data until 2020. An overview of the data shows that in 2022 there were slightly more of us, we became a little older, more educated and more active at work. At the same time, we lost a little weight, took more sick leave and used more help at home. We once again recorded a reduced impact of alcohol on our health. In general, there were more indicators that improved than those that worsened.
Many indicators point to an improvement in health
Children's physical fitness and overnutrition have begun to slowly return to values from before the covid-19 pandemic. 89 municipalities improved the indicator of children's physical fitness. The indicator of the proportion of overnourished school children improved in the vast majority of municipalities, namely in 196 municipalities, so that the overall value of the indicator at the level of Slovenia improved by 13%. Thus, last year 73 municipalities were better than the Slovenian average (the year before, there were 65 such municipalities). At the same time, the curve of children's overnutrition turned downward again after two years.
Increased road traffic safety is shown by two indicators. For the eighth year in a row, we have recorded a positive trend in reducing the rate of injuries in transport accidents, which improved by an additional 6% in 2022. Likewise, the proportion of traffic accidents involving alcoholic drivers has also decreased somewhat (by half a percent), and diseases directly attributable to alcohol are also decreasing favorably.
The downward trend in the number of hospitalizations for asthma in children and adolescents continues, with a further 11% decrease compared to the previous publication.
We also recorded fewer cases of hospitalizations due to strokes (by 2.7%) and heart attacks (by 3.2%). There are 2.5% fewer hip fractures in older people. The number of people receiving medication for diabetes also decreased slightly (by 1%).
In 2022, after the excess mortality due to covid-19 in the previous years, the mortality of the residents was shown by the municipalities of permanent residence, which is also reflected in the individual causes of mortality, both in the reduced mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer diseases and suicides.
Rates of new cancer cases fell slightly in 2022, mainly at the expense of stomach cancer and colorectal cancer.
Some indicators point to poorer health
In the nine-year trend, we see a steady increase in sick leave, which has risen again by almost 12% in 2022. Otherwise, compared to 2016, when we first published indicators at the municipal level, the number of days of incapacity for work per employee increased from 13 to 22 days on average. In 2022, sickness absence was above the Slovenian average in 134 municipalities (in 2021 there were 127 such municipalities), while the situation worsened in as many as 175 municipalities.
The number of recipients of help at home increased by 5.4%.
After a multi-year positive trend of decreasing recipients of medication due to mental problems, we again recorded a slight increase in 2022, namely by 0.3%.
Participation in screening programs for early detection of cancer has hardly changed
The participation of women in the ZORA screening program decreased by less than half a percent after the previous notable increase, and in 2022 represented 71.4%. Participation in the screened DORA program also decreased by 0.3% and amounted to a good 77.8%.
The response rate of the Svit Program for the detection of colon and rectal cancer remained almost unchanged in 2022 and amounts to 63.4%.
More detailed information can be found in the municipalities' online health profiles.
News
- The central theme of this year's publication is a healthy community. We determined which characteristics of municipalities can contribute to improving the health of residents in local communities. You can read about the forms and ways of establishing partnerships to strengthen health at the local level and how to strengthen strategic integration in the central content of this year's short publications.
- This year we are publishing a new indicator Vaccination against the human (human) papillomavirus (HPV) . HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the world, as research shows that most sexually active people are infected with HPV at least once in their lives. Vaccination against HPV infection is an effective public health measure that prevents both HPV infection and diseases caused by this infection, especially cervical cancer. Vaccination against HPV together with the ZORA screening program is an effective measure to eradicate cervical cancer. You can read about the vaccination against HPV infections in your municipality in this year's publication. The definition and detailed description of the indicator is here .
- Detailed descriptions of other indicators, their purpose and calculation methods can be found in the publication Methodological explanations at the following link .
Be careful when interpreting data on changes in indicators
Since we are publishing the indicators this year for the ninth year in a row, this also enables a retrospective comparison. However, it is necessary to interpret the changes between periods carefully and also 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 view the health profiles of your municipalities and find out how healthy you are in your municipality!
