Assessment of Factors Contributing to Environmental Pollution in the Context of Public Health Using the Example of the Republic of Armenia

Abstract

Frequent changes in environmental pollution factors have a negative impact on human health and, as a result, dramatically change the quality of his life, perhaps it is precisely this circumstance that determines the relevance of the topic. The purpose of the article is to assess the connection between the factors contributing to environmental pollution and human health. It is obvious that in a given country, the healthier people are, the more effectively the mechanisms of state environmental management function, as a result of which the life expectancy of the population increases especially.  The genetic, environmental, and healthcare factors affecting human health can be presented from two perspectives. These factors have the opposite effect, and it is in this context that the article distinguishes 8 factors of environmental pollution and 7 factors threatening human health, and proposes 7 hypotheses (The statistics were selected between 2000 and 2022). To reveal the interconnection between these factors, empirical, statistical, and mathematical tools and methods have been applied. The results of the evaluation of the hypotheses have shown that the selected environmental pollution-promoting factors have an impact on the deterioration or improvement of human health. The article also evaluates the risk of human life loss in the context of the environment. Accordingly, the healthcare sector reforms in Armenia are divided into 3 phases (2000-2007 up to emergence of financial crisis, 2008-2019 overcoming of financial crisis and nowadays reforms, 2020-2022) and for each phase, the standard mortality rate in Armenia, as well as the risk of human health deterioration and life loss, have been calculated. The results show that there has been an increase in both indicators, and their growth points to the deterioration of human health. Therefore, the current indicators characterizing the state of the healthcare sector in Armenia are concerning, while the upcoming trends are alarming. We believe that the implementation of the mechanism proposed in the article could later create guarantees for the restoration of human health.