Does Alcohol Matter? Public Health in Russia and the Baltic Countries Before, During, and after the Transition

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s public health in Russia and the Baltic countries has shown vast fluctuations. After a notable improvement during the second half of the 1980s, the early 1990s saw a dramatic deterioration with soaring mortality rates. This article describes some particularities of this rise and fall in public health, primarily concerning age, gender and cause of death, which have been remarkably similar in all four countries. The article identifies three phases in the development in alcohol policy and alcohol consumption, and in public health as such, during the past 15 years. There are many questions and few definite answers concerning the driving forces behind the recent public health turbulence, but developments are frequently related to two important events: the anti-alcohol campaign during the 1980s, and the economic and political transition following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although the public health crisis is a result of unique historical experiences, there are general lessons to be learned, and the similarity in trends is noteworthy. Moreover, internationalization will enhance a certain convergence in consumption patterns and policy responses in the future, although local provisions will ensure a certain diversity in policies.

Heavy Drinking and Suicide in Russia

“…First, Norström and Skog (2001) called for more country-specific analyses of the aggregate-level alcohol-suicide link. Similarly, though some have noted similarities in drinking and suicide trends or shown an association between drinking and overall and external cause mortality in Russia (Chenet et al 1998, Gavrilova et al 2000, Nemtsov 1998, Reitan 2000, very few studies have directly tested the association between alcohol and suicide (Nemtsov 2003a). This research is thus one of the few to study heavy drinking and suicide in Russia and is the first of its kind to examine their cross-sectional covariation.…”

“…Repeated political and economic crises in 1990s Russia resulted in uncertainty and diminished hope for the future at a time when a paradigmatic shift of social, cultural, economic and political (Jernigan 1997, Reitan 2000. The increased supply, together with poor tax collection by the Russian government, meant that alcohol prices rose at a fraction of food and other staples.…”

“…Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign in 1985, for example, had created a large market for illegally produced alcohol. Further, when the state monopoly on legal alcohol was repealed in 1992, local and international companies quickly began to exploit the new markets (Jernigan 1997, Reitan 2000. The increased supply, together with poor tax collection by the Russian government, meant that alcohol prices rose at a fraction of food and other staples.…”

Alcohol and Homicide in Russia and the United States: A Comparative Analysis

“…The economic crisis also may have had an indirect impact by spurring heavy episodic drinking (Rojas et al, 2008). However, the main explanation for the increase in drinking seems to be a confl uence of various factors, including decreasing relative prices of alcohol, an increased supply of legally as well as illegally produced alcohol, and an ineffi cient tax collection system (Reitan, 2000).…”

The Differential Effects of Beverage Type on Alcohol Poisoning Mortality in Russia

“…Elucidating the phenomenon of extremely high fatal alcohol poisoning rate in Russia, however, does little to understand the reasons for it dramatic fluctuations across time. Most commentators agree that the affordability and availability of vodka is one of the most important predictor of the dramatic fluctuations in Russian mortality from alcohol poisoning during the last decades [9,[36][37][38]. One of the intriguing phenomenon in this context is the substantial decline in alcohol poisoning mortality rate between 1980 and 1984.…”