Incidence rates of diseases and illnesses in the employees of the Federal Fire Service of the Russian EMERCOM discharged from service due to health conditions (2008–2024)

Relevance. Fire and other emergencies expose firefighters to harmful and hazardous factors associated with greater stress impact on their health and functional reserves, as well as augmented risk of diseases and injuries

The objective is to analyze the morbidity among the workforce employed by the Federal Fire Service (FFS) of the EMERCOM of Russia who were declared unfit for service and to calculate dismissal rates for health reasons.

Methods. We studied morbidity rates among the FFS employees of the EMERCOM of Russia who hold special ranks and were declared unfit for service; the data was obtained from annual reports issued 2008 through 2024 by the military medical commissions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The average annual morbidity rate was calculated based on the total number of cases over 17 years and represented as the mean annual level (M ± m) per 1,000 firefighters. The dismissal rate was calculated per 10,000 firefighters (10^–4). The analysis focused on disease categories according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), with disease significance ranging from rank 1 to 5. The Mann–Whitney U-test was utilized to obtain results to be further compared with the data for contract servicemen (officers, warrant officers, rank-and-file, sergeants, petty officers) of the Russian Ministry of Defense, with female personnel excluded. Dynamic regression analysis with a second-order polynomial trend model was performed; the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to study the congruence of trends.

Results and analysis. Over 17 years, some 5,000 FFS employees of the EMERCOM of Russia were declared unfit for service for health reasons. The level of morbidity for major disease categories (ICD-10, Chapters II, IV, IX, XIII, XIX) was statistically significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in contract servicemen, while the discharge rate was lower (p < 0.001). The average annual discharge rate among firefighters was 27.38 • 10^–4, including due to Circulatory system diseases (Chapter IX) 9.23 • 10^–4 (33.7%); Neoplasms (Chapter II) 4.91 • 10^–4 (17.9 %); Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (Chapter XIX) 3.20 • 10^–4 (11.7 %); Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (Chapter IV) 2.40 • 10^–4 (8.8 %); and Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (Chapter XIII) 2.16 • 10^–4 (7.9 %). Overall, these categories accounted for 79.8 % of the total morbidity.

Conclusion. Prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of major diseases can help reduce morbidity and dismissals among firefighters due to health reasons.

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