Data for 2015–2017 were preliminary and obtained through personal communication with the Human Mortality Database team. Age‐specific mortality rates for alcohol‐related causes were obtained from the Russian statistical office. For the initial analysis, we used data on alcohol poisonings as our proxy measure for the prevalence of harmful drinking in the population in any 1 year. During the period 1965–2017 alcohol poisonings accounted for between 0.5% and 1.9% of total male aged standardised mortality rates and from 0.2% to 0.9% of the equivalent female mortality rates. In this context, alcohol poisoning also has the advantage as constituting only a small fraction of total mortality. Thus changes in mortality from alcohol poisonings cannot, for arithmetic reasons, alone produce any substantial effect on LE.
David A. Leon
These procedures involve preventive check-up activities undertaken at the population level as organized within PHC facilities. They go back to the Soviet centralized public health system and they are still in place in some form in Russia as well as some other post-Soviet countries. Also beginning in 2009, a series of media campaigns was launched by the government in order to raise awareness for the harmful use of alcohol and tobacco in the population and to promote the newly formed health centers and their early check-ups for risk factors and potential health issues (see Table A3 of the Appendix A). Although some evaluations of the 2009 policy concept were carried out, often as part of the overall changes of the Russian legislations towards promoting healthy lifestyles and increasing life expectancy [35,36,37,38,39], none of these analyses followed a formal evaluation process with a predefined framework and formalized rating procedures.
The changing relation between alcohol and life expectancy in Russia in 1965–2017
Rosspirtprom took more than half of Russian spirits producers under formal control, which made the government the biggest spirits producer in the country, with established annual production quotas and a recently introduced minimum unit price on vodka [10,17]. In the same year, substantial amendments to the main alcohol law of the Russian Federation were introduced, the Federal Law of 22 November 1995 No. 171 “On State Regulation of the Production and Turnover of Ethyl Alcohol cannabis marijuana national institute on drug abuse nida and Alcoholic Products” [19]. The new provisions mainly addressed unrecorded alcohol, i.e., alcohol that is not recorded and taxed as beverage alcohol because it is produced or sold outside of the formal channels under governmental control, according to the common definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) [20]. Also, a centralized monitoring system for collecting data on produced volumes of alcohol, including the use of raw materials and leftovers, was introduced.
Women outliving men ‘everywhere’, new UN health agency statistics report shows
In 2010, the rate increased again by 2.9% compared with 2009, but overall still amounted to only 84.12% of the numbers for the year 2000. In order to test for changes between the time period 2000–2005 and the period 2006–2010, two-tailed t-tests were conducted for each of the indicators. As we describe yearly data only for 10 years, there is not enough statistical power for time series analyses (Rehm and Gmel, 2001). Characteristics of Fatal Alcohol Poisoning by Republics, 1989 (death rates per 100,000 population). Because of the methods and sources employed in data collection, the statistics on per capita consumption of alcohol in Russia have several serious shortcomings, described below. The WHO hopes that the success seen in Russia will spur other countries to implement effective alcohol policies, in order to reduce the major health and economic burdens stemming from alcohol abuse, and improve the life prospects of their citizens.
Drinking Ages Around The World
It remains to be seen what the next Russian alcohol strategy will bring, as the current concept expires this year. But, based on the evaluation’s results, following the same clear structure of aligning the components with the WHO policy portfolio and specifying priority tasks as well as specific indicators to be achieved, as with the 2009 concept, is recommended. Almost all components were aligned with the WHO portfolio of evidence-based actions to reduce harmful use of alcohol and the only WHO action area the concept did not feature were drink-driving policies as well as measures to decrease the negative impact of alcohol such as health warnings and server training. However, compared to the rest of the WHO European Region, these policies are relatively well implemented in Russia, with the big exception of server training [11]. In 2016, separate excise rate categories were introduced for domestically produced wines, sparkling wines, as well as for imported ones, presumably supporting the domestic winemaking culture as a distinct measure of the national concept.
Statistics on the Overall Impact of Drinking and Alcohol Abuse in Russia
The developments in different areas are briefly described to highlight the most important changes. Some states do not allow those under the legal drinking age to be present in liquor stores or in bars (usually, the difference between a bar and a restaurant is that food is served only in the latter). Contrary to popular belief, only a few states prohibit minors and young adults from consuming alcohol in private settings. The relatives of the deceased may exert pressure on the doctors or forensic experts persuading them not to mention alcohol in the medical death certificate. It is possible that over time there have been changes in the willingness of experts to certify a cause as due to alcohol poisoning.
The high level of ruble retail trade sales of alcoholic beverages (which accounted for between 15 and 20 percent of total retail turnover) was also viewed as an important factor in helping central planners, industry, and consumer trade authorities balance the inadequate supply of consumer goods with people’s income. It was conceded that high prices of state-produced alcoholic beverages would encourage illegal distillation of samogon 4 and home production of wine, but it was believed, contrary to all evidence, that law enforcement agencies would be able either to eliminate or to minimize home production. Valid information on levels of consumption is difficult to obtain due to the climate of official secrecy during the Soviet period (Simpura and Levin, 1997; Treml, 1997). From 1963, figures for sales of alcoholic beverages from state outlets were combined in an ‘other foodstuffs’ category, with products such as ice cream, coffee, mushrooms, and spices, thus instantly becoming the largest single category of foodstuff. Other statistics on trade and production slowly disappeared over the following decade.
In these countries, it is an offense for anyone to sell, give, or offer alcoholic drinks to people under the age of 16 years. However, in Zimbabwe, a person is allowed to sell or supply alcoholic drinks to children under 16 years upon the proof of a written document signed by parents or guardians of the minor known to the person selling the alcohol. Groupings in this table are defined only by vodka consumption, but mean alcohol consumption includes all drinks, drinking alcohol with covid-19 and is expressed in units of 200 mL of pure alcohol per week (the approximate alcohol content of one bottle of vodka). The replacement of alcohol poisonings by a group of other alcohol‐related causes that includes mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol as well as alcoholic liver disease reduced the predictive power of the model for the period 1984–2003 but increased it for the subsequent period of 2003–2017 (Appendix S2, Table S2a).
If at any point in the page above you find “No information” it means there is no specific mention in the legislation, but you still need to ask local law enforcement before drinking in . Detailed information on specific International Classification of Diseases codes used in our analysis and a commentary on the consistency of alcohol‐related causes in statistics is given in Appendix S1 (Supporting Information). For the sensitivity checks, we also used data on mortality from mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol and alcoholic liver disease. The strongest negative correlation between changes in LE and alcohol poisonings was found in 1984–2003. Over the period 2003–2017 a consistent positive LE trend emerged that was statistically independent of alcohol poisoning.
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Overview of the measures of the concept and rating of their implementation (process evaluation). In the final step, a mixed-methods evaluation of the measures implemented (process evaluation) and the achievement of the formulated indicators (effect evaluation) was carried out for the period 2008–2018. For the latter, a simple rating on an ordinal 3-point scale was carried out to highlight if indicators were achieved, partly achieved, or not achieved. Differences in the initial coding and final ratings were thoroughly discussed among all authors until a consensus was reached.
- The 2009 concept seems to mark an important turning point in Russian alcohol control as it provides a clear public health-oriented and evidence-based framework for its implementation, which is, for its largest part, aligned with the WHO policy portfolio.
- Against the backdrop of these changes, a substantial shift in the beverage-specific structure in total alcohol sales occurred, with beer surpassing vodka as the most frequently sold beverage (see Figure A1 of the Appendix A).
- Over the period 2003–2017, the annual alcohol‐independent increase (0.27 years) corresponds to 3.8 years of the female LE gain with the remaining 2.0 years attributed to alcohol.
More substantial drops of incidence were observed between 2005 and 2006 by 8.2% and by another 9.1% between 2006 and 2007. Corresponding changes can be observed in cause-specific mortality from CVDs and external causes. For men, SDRs from CVD fell by 11.7% between 2005 and 2006 and by 8.7% for the next year, before rising again by 4.5% between 2009 and 2010. Male mortality from external causes such as injuries and poisonings fell by 12.1% between 2005 and 2006 and by a further 8.73% between 2006 and 2007, and has been declining since then.
In line with the outlined changes in the areas of alcohol pricing and availability, important changes in alcohol marketing occurred in 2011, when amendments to the Federal Law No. 38 “On the Advertisement” were adopted, introducing important restrictions of content and advertising spaces [81]. The 2012 amendments to the same law prohibited the alcohol advertising on the Internet, including social networks [82]. In 2014, alcohol advertising was prohibited in sports and recreational facilities and at a distance of less than 100 m from the buildings that accommodate these facilities [83]. However, in the same year, the provisions of the federal law were loosened again, allowing advertisement of domestically produced wine and sparkling wine or wine made of domestic grapes on TV and radio between 11 PM and 7 AM, except for live broadcasting and broadcasts of children’s and youth sports competitions. However, the latter provisions were repealed in 2019, again prohibiting the placement and distribution of advertisements for beer and beer-based beverages during live broadcasts or in recordings of sporting events and during official sporting events [84]. The numbers of deaths from specific diseases and specific external causes were generally too small for similar analyses to yield statistically reliable absolute risks.
There is a wealth of other supporting evidence, reviewed by White (1996), on illicit production, ranging from information on sales of sugar, yeast, and alcohol substitutes such as window-cleaning fluids, to seizures of stills or illicit alcohol, and even reports of theft of alcohol from the de-icing systems of aircraft. Of great importance was the impetus that this dramatic increase in illicit production had for long-term consumption trends. Prior to 1985, most illicit production had taken place in rural areas, where it was frequently used as a form of unofficial currency for use in the informal economy. The 1985 campaign led to a dramatic extension of production into non-traditional settings, ranging from apartments in the industrial cities of the Urals to schools and even long-distance trains. Subsequently there was a series of further measures to restrict access, with cuts in production leading to massive shortages.
For women, CVD mortality rates fell by 12.1% between 2005 and 2006 and by 11.6% between 2006 and 2007, rising again between 2009 and 2010 by 6%. Female mortality from external causes decreased by 11% and 10.4% for the years 2006 and 2007, respectively; and has been slightly decreasing since then. Overall, Russia has experienced a number of more or less integrated measures of alcohol policy to reduce consumption and alcohol-attributable harm.
Wine products decreased by 7%, beer and beer-based products by 30%, and sparkling wines by 35%. Overall, recorded sales of all alcoholic products declined by 33% for the 2008–2018 period. The same level of decrease was reported for total per capita consumption (including the use of unrecorded alcohol) for the same time window [11]. It should be noted, however, that the per capita consumption refers to a rate and takes into account population change, whereas the provided sales figures are not controlled for by population size.