Alcohol, drinking pattern and all-cause, cardiovascular and alcohol-related mortality in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Alcohol has been implicated in the high mortality in Central and Eastern Europe but the magnitude of its effect, and whether it is due to regular high intake or episodic binge drinking remain unclear. The aim of this paper was to estimate the contribution of alcohol to mortality in four Central and Eastern European countries. We used data from the Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors in Eastern Europe is a prospective multi-centre cohort study in Novosibirsk (Russia), Krakow (Poland), Kaunas (Lithuania) and six Czech towns. Random population samples of 34,304 men and women aged 45–69 years in 2002–2005 were followed up for a median 7 years. Drinking volume, frequency and pattern were estimated from the graduated frequency questionnaire. Deaths were ascertained using mortality registers. In 230,246 person-years of follow-up, 2895 participants died from all causes, 1222 from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), 672 from coronary heart disease (CHD) and 489 from pre-defined alcohol-related causes (ARD). In fully-adjusted models, abstainers had 30–50 % increased mortality risk compared to light-to-moderate drinkers. Adjusted hazard ratios (HR) in men drinking on average ≥60 g of ethanol/day (3 % of men) were 1.23 (95 % CI 0.95–1.59) for all-cause, 1.38 (0.95–2.02) for CVD, 1.64 (1.02–2.64) for CHD and 2.03 (1.28–3.23) for ARD mortality. Corresponding HRs in women drinking on average ≥20 g/day (2 % of women) were 1.92 (1.25–2.93), 1.74 (0.76–3.99), 1.39 (0.34–5.76) and 3.00 (1.26–7.10). Binge drinking increased ARD mortality in men only. Mortality was associated with high average alcohol intake but not binge drinking, except for ARD in men.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10654-015-0092-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Alcohol consumption and cardiovascular diseases in rural China

“…Consistent with other studies [27][28][29], we found that the drinking status was significantly different between men and women. Men had higher rate of alcohol consumption per day and a higher prevalence of being heavy drinkers than women.…”

“…However, our final analysis using multivariate logistic regression showed that, after fully adjusting the data, only heavydrinking participants had an approximately 1.3-fold greater risk for CHD compared with the non-drinking group and that there was no significant association between moderate drinking and CHD. This result is consistent with other studies based on large populations [34,35]. More prospective studies with long-term follow-up periods are needed to confirm these trends.…”

Alcohol, pattern of drinking and all‐cause mortality in Russia, Belarus and Hungary: a retrospective indirect cohort study based on mortality of relatives

“…In Russia, hazardous drinking patterns have been implicated both in the mortality crisis of the 1990s and high long‐term mortality . Our findings support and extend this hypothesis, in that they suggest that drinking pattern is associated with mortality in Russia, Belarus and Hungary in both genders, and particularly when it also includes binge drinking.…”

“…To reduce biases associated with long recall periods and changing time trends, the follow‐up was restricted to the last 16 years. Our prevalence estimates of frequent drinking and abstention appear lower and higher than in some other studies in Eastern Europe, but estimates of binge drinking prevalence were broadly similar . In addition, the distributions of alcohol drinking were similar throughout the countries in our study, suggesting that the method performs adequately.…”

The association of depressive symptoms with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in Central and Eastern Europe: Prospective results of the HAPIEE study

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