Alcohol consumption during the coronavirus epidemic in Russia

Abstract

The aim of the study is to assess alcohol consumption during the coronavirus epidemic in Russia.Materials and methods – retail sales of alcoholic beverages, which account for about 70% of the alcohol market in the country, as well as online inquiries for the delivery of illegal vodka were assessed. The assessment of changes was made on the basis of a comparison of the period March 2020-March 2021 with the average 2018–2019, and in the case of sales growth in 2018–2019 – based on average and linear regression. Internet requests for the delivery of vodka were obtained from the portals Google Trends and Yandex. The purchasing power of the population was assessed by the dynamics of the real money incomes of the population of the Russian Federation.Results – sales changes were ambiguous, both for different drinks, and in the two waves of the epidemic. Alcohol spirits increased both in the frst (by 2.2%) and in the second half of the year (by 1.2%), despite a decrease in cognac sales due to an increase in MRP by 11.6% from January 2020. Wine sales decreased during the epidemic, but this is due to a number of administrative and legislative measures, as well as a twofold decline in production. During the epidemic, retail beer sales grew by 4.5% in the frst half of the year, and decreased by 3.4% in the second. Internet searches for the illegal delivery of vodka rose sharply at the very beginning of the epidemic (after March 22, 2020) and two weeks later reached a maximum (202.9 thousand per week; Yandex), exceeding the February level by 2.7 times. Further, the dynamics of online searches corresponded to the waves of the epidemic.Conclusions. The coronavirus epidemic was accompanied by an increase in the consumption of hard alcohol from various sources. It has been suggested that distress was the dominant factor in the growth of strong alcohol consumption during the coronavirus epidemic, despite the decline in the purchasing power of the population, especially during the second wave of the epidemic.