Alcohol Consumption and Gender Gap in All-cause Mortality in Russia

Razvodovsky Ye

doi:10.4172/2329-6488.1000271

Abstract

Background: There is extensive research literature that claims women have a mortality advantage compared to men in all developed countries. Russia has one of the highest differences in mortality between the sexes when compared to European Union countries. Objective: This study aims to test the hypothesis of alcohol consumption as a risk factor in regards to the gender gap in all-cause mortality in Russia. Method: Time-series Analytical Modelling Techniques (ARIMA) was used to examine the relation between the gender gap in all-cause mortality and trends in alcohol consumption per capita. Results: The results of the analysis also suggest that 54.6% of the difference in all-cause mortality rates between males and females in Russia could be attributed to alcohol. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study provide indirect support for the hypothesis that alcohol is a major contributor to the high gender gap in all-cause mortality and its dramatic fluctuations in Russia during the last few decades.

Highlights

There is extensive research literature that claims women have a mortality advantage compared to men in all developed countries [1,2,3,4,5]
The results of the analysis suggest that 54.6% of the difference in all-cause mortality rates between males and females in Russia could be attributed to alcohol
The outcomes of this study provide indirect support for the hypothesis that alcohol is a major contributor to the high gender gap in all-cause mortality and its dramatic fluctuations in Russia during the last few decades

Summary

Introduction

There is extensive research literature that claims women have a mortality advantage compared to men in all developed countries [1,2,3,4,5]. Russia has one of the highest differences in mortality between the sexes when compared to European Union countries [6] This is primarily due to high rates of male death from external causes, cardiovascular and alcohol-related diseases [9,10,11]. It has been reported that Russian men have considerably higher levels of alcohol consumption than women [9] This evidence suggests that alcohol consumption may play an important role in explaining the pronounced gender gap in all-cause mortality in Russia. Russia has one of the highest differences in mortality between the sexes when compared to European Union countries

Methods

Results

Conclusion