Mortality rate in Belarus: from studying risk factors to national programs

Abstract

The publication is devoted to the analysis of the evolution of mortality in Belarus as a subject of study. The results of scientific works by doctors and medical scientists on the mortality rate of the population of Belarus of the XIX–XXI centuries are presented, attention is paid to the establishment of a link between demographic indicators and socioeconomic living conditions. The focus of the research is on the evolution of publications, monographs, textbooks and scientific and practical events dedicated to the mortality of the population. The objects of study were authentic manuscripts, studies, documents identified in library collections and archival collections of Belarus and abroad. Within the framework of the discourse analysis, key attention is paid to the driving forces, methodological approaches, tools and trends in the domestic experience of studying population mortality. Numerous facts are presented indicating that the demographic studies of medical scientists and doctors were in line with global trends and contained in-depth analysis and original ideas. The article is aimed at restoring the completeness of the scientific and methodological approaches to studying population mortality in different historical epochs, updating the results of interdisciplinary research to the existing realities of domestic experience, preserving the continuity of medical traditions, socio-cultural adaptation of accumulated scientific and medical practices to personalized medicine of the XXI century.