Searching for Otherness in Chronic Patient’s Biographical Choices in Modern Russia

This work was carried out in order to find and describe statistically differences in the consequences of the biographical choice made by chronically ill citizens of the Russian Federation regarding the choice of resources with which they confront their illness(es).   The tasks of the work were the following: - Designing a synthetic theoretical concept that combines quantitative methods of studying socioeconomic data in health studies and qualitative sociological and psychological concepts of chronic illness as biographical disruption; - Preparation of the database (the last round of the HSE RLMS panel survey, 2017 sample has been used) and the design of theoretically grounded variables; - Construction of statistical models capable of confirming or refuting selected theoretical concepts; - Description of the results of statistical modeling and the production of new knowledge on the survey object. As a result of the work, new data were obtained describing the connection of the indicator of subjective health with the socioeconomic capital of the patient, usage of paid medical services, state social assistance; The hypothesis about the relationship between gender differences in chronic patients and the levels of subjective health chosen by them was rejected, as well as the hypothesis about the significant relationship between subjective health and the relative deprivation of patient's income; A set of variables was formed that are naming various ways of obtaining the resources needed by a chronically ill person, and the symptoms of chronic patients who are more successful in obtaining these resources are described.