Prevalence of alcohol problems in Russia in periods of socio-economic crises

Abstract

The article investigates changes in the alcoholic behavior of the Russian population for more than 40 years. The study focuses on the relationship between socio-economic crises and the prevalence of alcohol problems. It is shown that in periods of social and economic crises two behavioral patterns can manifest themselves: increased alcohol consumption due to increased psychological distress and decreased consumption due to budgetary constraints. Analysis of statistical data and survey materials allows us to conclude that Russia is characterized by large and repeated fluctuations in the prevalence of alcohol consumption. On the basis of quantitative data we trace the dynamics of citizens’ well-being and alcohol consumption from 1994 to 2022. We consider such parameters as the level of life satisfaction, the level of anxiety about the impossibility to provide oneself with the most necessary things in the next 12 months, as well as self-assessment of the economic situation and the feeling of one’s own powerlessness. It has been revealed that it is not so much the difficult economic situation that contributes to the tense alcohol situation in Russia as the process of abrupt transformations: changes in the socio-economic situation, both for the better and for the worse, can increase the level of alcoholization.