More than 52pct of Romanians say they do not know themselves to have any health problems, while 20.6pct say they have cardiovascular diseases, and 17.9pct face rheumatological problems, according to an opinion poll conducted by INSCOP Research at the request of the Strategic Thinking Group think tank.

Asked about their current state of health, 52.2pct of the Romanians say they do not know themselves to have any health problems. 20.6pct say they have cardiovascular health problems, 17.9pct say have rheumatological issues, 10.7pct - metabolic, 6.5pct - respiratory, 2.8pct - oncological, and 9.5pct face other problems of health.

"People over 60 and the passive inactive report much higher than average percentages of cardiovascular problems. Among the same categories are the highest percentages of respondents who say that they have rheumatic health problems. Young people up to 30 years old represent the socio-demographic category recording the highest rate of people who claim that they are in perfect health. Values well above average are also found among people up to 44 years old, white-collar workers and people with high and very high incomes," note the study authors.

At the same time, 76.1pct of the Romanians say that they are very or quite concerned about their state of health, while 23.8pct claim that they are quite little or not at all concerned about their health status.

"People with higher education and white collars say in higher than average percentages that they are quite concerned about their health. Especially people over 60, passive inactive people and people living in South-Western Oltenia region say that they are very concerned about their health," reveals the socio-demographic analysis of the study.

Also, 85.8pct of the Romanians say that they are very or quite interested in preventing the occurrence of a disease or complications, while 14.1pct say that they are interested in this aspect quite little or not at all.

"Residents who report that their monthly income is enough for a decent living claim in significantly higher than average percentage that they are interested in prevention," the researchers note.

The main sources of health information used by Romanians are: family doctor (mentioned by 70.2pct of respondents), specialized physicians (25.7pct), websites dedicated to providing health information (15.4pct ), TV/radio shows on health topics (14.5pct), Facebook and other social networks (9.9pct), friends or acquaintances (7.4pct), newspapers and magazines dealing with health topics (6.6pct).

People with a primary education declare in a significantly higher percentage that they get their information related to health from the family environment. The option "my physician" is chosen in a much higher percentage than the average among the passive inactives," results from the socio-demographic analysis.

28.5pct of Romanians say they go to a health professional for problems related to prevention or health once a year, 16.7pct twice a year, 8.3pct three times a year, 9.3pct four times a year, and 33.7pct more often than four times a year.

The "more than 4 times a year" option is chosen in significantly higher percentages than the average by the passive inactive people over 60 years of age.

Also, 91.3pct of the respondents interact with health professionals through physical presentations at the office. Other ways of interaction were also mentioned, such as: correspondence through text messaging services (3.7pct) online presentation through telemedicine services (1.5pct), request for a visit from the home health professional (1.3pct), correspondence by e-mail (1.2pct).

"Based on what Romanians believe, we want to encourage a broad conversation of experts (from academia, public and private sector) on each of the topics of the project. The project aims to conduct several sociological studies on six major areas of interest for the future of Romania, each divided into specific themes: the society of the future, the infrastructure of the future, the environment and resources of the future, the economy and business of the future, the technologies and trades of the future and Romania's place in the world of the future," said Remus Ioan Stefureac, head of Strategic Thinking Group.

University Professor Viorel Scripcariu, PhD, rector of the "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi, said that the results of the survey reveal important aspects of the population's perception of health.

"Concerns about health and interest in prevention appear to be dominant in the population, supporting the opportunity to build public mechanisms to meet these needs. We are convinced that an in-depth analysis of these data and those that will continue to be collected will provide essential information for the development of public policies in the field of health, and our University will continue to be involved in this endeavour," he said.

The survey "Agenda Romania 2050. A conversation about the future of Romania - Edition I" was conducted between May 23 and June 14, on a sample of 1,500 respondents, in a research project supported by the private environment and having as academic partners the "Babes Bolyai" University from Cluj-Napoca, the University of Bucharest, the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the Western University of Timisoara and the "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Iasi. The survey data were collected by using the CATI method (telephone interviews). The maximum permissible data error is plus/minus 2.53pct, at a 95pct confidence level. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Florin Marin, EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)

* Photo source: strategicthinking.ro