Social deprivation of persons older than working age in terms of death causes which require forensic medical examination

The article analyzes structure of forensic medical research of persons older than working age and its change during period of improving social and economic situation in the country. Persons whose causes of death are determined by forensic medical examination are considered as a deviant group of people who did not adapt to changing socio-cultural conditions and to age changes. That was manifested in causes and circumstances of death (external causes, death at home without witnesses, death on street or in hospital without examination). The information on 72 324 forensic examinations of elderly residents in Nizhny Novgorod region for 2003-2017 was analyzed. It was done in terms of sex, living or not in the regional center and age groups (advanced: 60-74 years for men and 55-74 years for women, senile: 75-84 years, age of longevity: 85 years and older). It is shown that the size of the deviant group of retirees is increasing, and this increase is not a consequence only of the population aging. The contribution of loneliness to formation of the deviant group exceeds the contribution of socioeconomic disadvantages: no correlation was found between the frequency of forensic examinations and the mortality from causes related to alcohol; from 2003 to 2017, the share of external death causes and the proportion of corpses taken for examination from street are decreasing. The structure of external and somatic death causes of persons older than working age established during forensic medical research is determined by age, place of residence as well as social and economic situations in the region, changing for the period studied in direction of reducing differences.