Acute alcohol poisoning has now reached unprecedented rates in parts of the ex-USSR with worrying trends among men as well as among women. Effective action by the governments concerned is now essential.

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Objective. Recent research evidence suggests that the consumption of different types of alcoholic beverage may have a differential effect on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) mortality rates. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between the consumption of different beverage types and CVD mortality rates in Russia across the later-Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Method. Age-standardized male and female CVD mortality data for the period 1970–2005 and data on beverage-specific alcohol sales were obtained Russian State Statistical Committee (Rosstat). Time-series analytical modeling techniques (ARIMA) were used to examine the relation between the sales of different alcoholic beverages and CVD mortality rates. Results. Vodka consumption as measured by sales was significantly associated with both male and female CVD mortality rates: a 1 liter increase in vodka sales would result in a 5.3% increase in the male CVD mortality rate and a 3.7% increase in the female rate. The consumption of beer and wine were not associated with CVD mortality rates. Conclusions. The findings from this study suggest that public health efforts should focus on both reducing overall consumption and changing beverage preference away from distilled spirits in order to reduce cardiovascular mortality rates in Russia.

The association between alcohol and violent mortality is well documented.Considerably less is known about the beverage-specific effect of alcohol on mortality rate. The role of drinking patterns in the alcohol-violent mortality association is a very important issue today. Aim: To estimate the beverage-specific effect of alcohol on violent mortality rate. Measurement: Trends in different types of violent mortality rate (mortality due to accidents and injuries, mortality due to suicide and homicide, mortality due to motor-traffic accidents) from 1970-1999 in Belarus were analyzed in relation to trends in the level of different types of alcoholic beverage consumption per capita applying time series, factor and cluster analyses. Results: The results of this study demonstrated a positive and statistically significant effect of changes in strong spirits per capita consumption on violent mortality rate. At the same time, the relationship between the total level of alcohol consumption and different types of violent mortality rates is far below statistical significance. The analysis suggest that a 10% increase in spirits consumption per capita would result in a 7.5% increase in accidents and injuries mortality rate, in a 5% increase in suicide rate, in an 11.4% increase in homicide rate, in a 1% increase in fatal traffic accidents rate. Conclusion: The results of this study support the idea that violent mortality rate tends to be more responsive to changes in distilled spirits consumption per capita than in total level of alcohol consumption. The main evidence for this conclusion is that a positive and statistically significant relationship between violent mortality rate and the level of vodka consumption per capita was revealed. The level of strong spirits consumption per capita is most strongly associated with such indexes as mortality due to homicides, suicides, accidents and injuries, and to a lesser degree with mortality due to road accidents. This study supports the idea that violent mortality and alcohol are more closely connected in culture with prevailing intoxication-oriented drinking patterns and adds to the growing body of evidence that a substantial proportion of violent mortality in Belarus is due to the acute effect of binge drinking.

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