On July 21, 2022, the Association of Consumer Health Industry jointly with Pharmvestnik and Medvestnik held a round table dedicated to self-care in Russia, timed to coincide with International Self-care Day, which is celebrated on 24 July.

The concept of self-care was proposed by the World Health Organization (the WHO) back in 1983. WHO defines self-care as the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.

Implementation of the concept of self-care does not assume a complete refusal to visit doctors. On the contrast, the purpose of it is to create the environment where the population has the knowledge, skills and support provided by healthcare professionals (pharmaceutical professionals etc.) to make conscious and independent decisions related to health.

Why is it today that we started to talk about self-care? Healthcare resources use is constantly increasing, which can be explained by factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, aging population, and an increase in the number of chronic non-infectious diseases.International studies demonstrate that implementation of the self-care concept can improve the burden for the primary care institutions, cut down state budget and households’ expenses, improve the population’s quality of life.

The benefits that a more active implementation of the responsible self-care concept in Russia can give were discussed with Anna Kontsevaya, Deputy Director of the National Medical Research Institute of Therapy and Preventive Medicine, Larisa Popovich, Director of the Institute for Health Economics at Higher School of Economics, Elena Nevolina, Executive Director at the Association of Consumer Health Industry, Anatoly Stremoukhov, Head of the Department of General Medical Practice and Polyclinic Therapy of the Russian Medical Academy of Continuous Professional Education, Maxim Agarev, Head of GR projects at Yandex.

PROGRAMME (Eng)

PRESS-RELEASE (Rus)