An overview of relevant data sources in the former USSR for studies in demographic trends, aging and noncommunicable disease problems.

This article provides an overview of health data available in the former USSR. It is not all-inclusive in terms of chronic diseases covered or in details of data collection activities carried out. However, several broad conclusions can be drawn: There is a system of population and mortality data collection which covers the former USSR and which can be disaggregated to smaller administrative areas. The system is being exploited by population specialists, demographers, medical demographers and epidemiologists, both nationally and internationally, both for analytical purposes and as part of health monitoring systems. A national-level data-collection system for morbidity and disability, based on delivery of health services, is in place and is exploited by both health researchers and health planners. The shortcomings of such a health service-based statistical system are well recognized. Further standardization or calibration of measures of total and cause-specific morbidity and disability measures should be examined. A potential calibration tool is the 1988-1993 health examination and interview survey covering a representative (but highly clustered) sample of the former USSR population. The possibilities of greater standardization of measurement procedures used in this survey should also be investigated. In certain disease areas, e.g. cardiovascular diseases, cancer, rheumatic diseases and gerontology, clinical and epidemiological studies involving international collaboration have been carried out. This has resulted in the use of internationally accepted disease definitions, diagnostic procedures, and of clinical and laboratory standardization of demographic, social and biological measurements. Participation in multilateral or bilateral studies should be encouraged in research in disease areas where these types of programmes have not yet been instituted.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)