Study of regional differences in the population morbidity and mortality from the standpoint of geographical latitude syndrome
: Based on a large material of international and Soviet investigations as well as on the data of official statistics, the authors analyze the main characteristics of the population morbidity and mortality depending on the geographic latitude. It has been demonstrated that with the moving away from the equator, the intensive growth of the general mortality is observable both in the USSR and in the countries of Europe and America as is of the lethality due to malignant neoplasms, circulatory diseases together with an increase of the lethality because of suicides. At the same time there is a dramatic lowering of the infantile death rate and of the mortality from infectious and parasitic diseases. It has been revealed that the incidence of arterial hypertension, alcoholism and drug addiction associated with the geographic latitude. Different factors that may underlie the regularities established are under analysis. An idea is advanced of the geographic latitude syndrome which is of paramount methodological importance for preventive medicine.