On the Issue of Organizing Hygienic Education of the Population in the Russian Federation: Historical Aspects

Abstract

Introduction: Hygienic education and training of the population are the mechanisms of interaction with the population of the Russian Federation recognized by the scientific community, contributing to the improvement of the culture of health in the society, the level of which has an impact on the sanitary and epidemiological situation and demographic indicators of the country. One of the most important components of hygiene training nowadays is the procedure of occupational hygiene training and certification aimed at constant improvement of the level and quality of knowledge in the field of hygiene and epidemiology among employees of epidemiologically significant facilities. Objective: To consider prerequisites for the development of the system of hygienic training in the Russian Federation and to substantiate the importance of maintaining occupational hygiene training and certification in view of the experience gained. Materials and methods: We have searched Scopus, Web of Science, CyberLeninka, RSCI, and eLIBRARY.RU for recent papers with the non-zero Hirsch index (h-index) and/or the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) using the following keywords: health education, hygienic education, and hygienic upbringing. We then selected 45 materials published in 1997–2022 (60 % of them – over the past five years) and containing the above keywords in the title. Results: The article considers historical aspects of the development of such methods of disease prevention as health education accompanying the formation of the sanitary and epidemiological service in the country. It shows that the pivotal points contributing to further legislative regulation of occupational hygiene training and certification in Russia were such historical milestones as wartime and urbanization, which entailed so-called “public health crises”. It also substantiates the relevance of the currently existing system of occupational hygiene training and certification, describing its further development paths determined with account for digitalization of the information space in the Russian Federation, and of implementation of specific tasks aimed at improving the demographic situation in the country.