Alcohol Consumption In Russia Research Articles

Suicides and Alcohol Consumption in Russia, 1959-2013

Suicides and Alcohol Consumption in Russia, 1959-2013

Russian Orthodox Parish Family Clubs of Sobriety. Specific of rehabilitation work (1992-2016)

According to WHO report published in 2014 Russia ranks world N°4 by alcohol consumption, Croatia - N° 11, Serbia - N° 32, Italy - N° 37, USA - N° 56. Per capita alcohol consumption in modern Russia is an average 15.76 litres of pure alcohol. To compare with the year 1912 per capita alcohol consumption in Russia was 3.14 litres of pure alcohol. In WHO opinion per capita alcohol consumption over 8.0 litres of pure alcohol is a national danger.Aid programs for alcohol addicted people exist in the USA for over 100 years. In connection with obsolescence of the most popular and wide-spread Alcoholics Anonymous approach founded in 1930-1940 - other programs are actively developing now.In Russia social sobriety movement has a history of more than 130 years' experience. From the middle of the 19th century there was an active social sobriety movement connected with such names as a great Russian teacher and public figure Rachinsky S.A., the archpriest Alexander Rozhdestvensky, St. Righteous John of Kronstadt. However scientifically based aid programs for alcohol addicted people have spread in the USSR only in the eighties of the XX Century.In Croatia the development of scientific aid program for alcohol addicted has started in the sixties of the XX Century and is connected with the name of a world-famous psychiatrist Vladimir Hudolin (2.05.192226.12.1996). Vladimir Hudolin has graduated from the chair of nervous and mental diseases of medical faculty of the Zagreb university, the chair was based in 1921 by a distinguished psychoneurologist, professor, Russian nobleman Lapinskiy Michail Niki- tovich (1862, Russia - 1949, Argentina). Doing an internship in Great Britain and Scotland clinics in 1952-1953, Vladimir Hudolin has got acquainted with clinical psychiatrist and the pioneer of social psychiatry Joshua Birer who has created in 1938-1939 the first therapeutic social club for patients of lunatic asylum and also with Maxwell Jones and his therapeutic community in Belmont hospital (Henderson Hospital). On the base of psychoneurological office of university hospital named after Doctor Mladen Stojanovic Vladimir Hudolin on his returning to Zagreb has organized open doors system suggested by Scottish psychiatrist John Batty Tyyuk. He has also begun to implement there a therapeutic communities methodology, strategy of work in small groups and family approach.Rising star of social psychiatry- the president of World association of social psychiatry A. Guilherme Ferreira has said about 45-year-old Vladimir Hudolin. Hudolin on the base of experience, theory of systems of Bertalanfi and reflections of his own began to develop social-ecological theory of alcoholism. According to this approach - problems connected with consumption of alcohol and other psychoactive agents are to be considered in the context of deviant behavior and lifestyle of addicted person. In this regard it is necessary to take into consideration the influence of immediate environment and inhabitable environment in general on the individual i.e., to estimate the influence of both individually-psychological and sociocultural factors.On April 1, 1964 Vladimir Hudolin being already a doctor of medical sciences opens at university hospital the Croatia's first The Club System for Treated Alcoholics. By 1979 there were already over 2000 such clubs on the Balkans, and currently the club aid program has spread not only in the countries of the former Yugoslavia but also in more than 30 countries worldwide. The results of the efficiency of this program were amazing as they have shown that among clubs members about 60% had permanent long remission.In Russia wide range of experts became familiar with Vladimir Hudolin's method after an article published by B. Gachich, T.P. Neborakova and E.A. Koshkina in Journal of Addiction Problems. In 1994 an article by A.N. Baburin together with a group of authors was published, in the article Russian experts have shared their experience in Family Clubs of Sobriety (FCS) management in Moscow and Moscow area. …

The Effects of Alcohol Taxation and Pricing Policies on Unrecorded Alcohol Consumption in Russia

Background: In Russia, harmful drinking is significantly associated with consumption of unrecorded alcohol (homemade spirits and non-beverage alcohol surrogates) containing high levels of ethanol and other toxic substances. Objectives: To estimate the effects of recent alcohol taxation and pricing policies on unrecorded alcohol consumption in Russia. Methods: Trends in the affordability of vodka, excise tax rates on vodka, real disposable income, real price of vodka and unrecorded alcohol consumption per capita between 2010 and 2015, were compared. Results: A Pearson’s correlation analysis suggests an inverse relationship between unrecorded alcohol consumption and total alcohol sales per capita, as well as vodka sales per capita. The relationship between unrecorded alcohol consumption and the affordability of vodka was also negative, but statistically nonsignificant. The level of unrecorded alcohol consumption also positively related to the excise tax rates on vodka and the real price of vodka. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that several factors including rising price of legal alcohol and ongoing economic crisis underpin a switch to unrecorded alcohol consumption in Russia over the last years.

Drinking in the North of European Russia: From Traditional to Totalising Liminality

AbstractThis article* explores the topic of alcohol consumption in Russia. My fieldwork was conducted in the north of European Russia between 2010 and 2014 in Arkhangelskaya and Vologodskaya oblasts. The main idea of the paper is to look at alcohol drinking through the lens of rites of passage and especially liminality. I argue that the traditional festivities, and alcohol consumption with the traditional type of liminality, were based on a small amount of sugar and money and also the long period of time required to make beer. In 1960s, afterukrupneniyeand the urbanisation of villages, money and spirits came to the villages. Together with an existing prohibition on ceremonies and rites they created a new permanent liminality of drinking. This new liminality included getting dead drunk and was paradoxically approved by Soviet ideology.

Surrogate alcohol containing methanol, social deprivation and public health in Novosibirsk, Russia

Surrogate alcohol, i.e. alcohol not intended or not officially intended for human consumption, continues to play an important role in alcohol consumption in Russia, especially for people with alcohol dependence. Among the different types of surrogate alcohol, there are windshield washer antifreeze liquids; these products are the cheapest kinds of non-beverage alcohol available and thus likely to be used by the most deprived and marginalised groups such as homeless people with alcohol dependence. Although it is well known, that non-beverage alcohol is used for consumption by various groups in Russia, and although there are laws to prohibit the use of methanol as part of windshield washer antifreeze liquids for the very reason that such products could be used as surrogate alcohol, we detected products in retail sale which were a mix of water and methanol only. Methanol poses serious health threats including blindness and death, and there had been repeated methanol deaths from surrogate alcohol in Russia over the last years. If law-enforcement does not change for surrogate products, we can expect more methanol-resulting deaths in the most deprived and marginalized groups of people with alcohol dependence in Russia. In addition, ingredients with questionable safety profiles such as formic acid should also be prohibited in non-beverage alcohol products that are likely to be consumed as surrogate alcohol.

Alcohol consumption and individual time preferences of Russians

This paper explores the relationship between socioeconomic factors—particularly, the rate of time preferences and alcohol consumption in Russia. The rate of time preferences shows an individual’s willingness to delay the utility from consumption to future periods of time. The relationship between this rate and indicators of alcohol consumption is examined separately for men and women. We find significant differences in men’s and women’s patterns of consumption of alcohol. Our findings suggest that the rate of time preferences, along with age, educational level, income, place of residence, and health substantially, affects an individual’s decision to drink alcohol. We show that employment status is endogenous to alcohol consumption and that estimating a system of binary equations is necessary.

Alcohol Consumption in Russia and Some Aspects of Public Health.

ContextThe problem of alcohol misuse in Russia is immense; but nonetheless there is a tendency to exaggerate it, which is evident for inside observers. Such exaggeration tends to veil shortcomings of the health care system with responsibility shifted onto the patients, that is, self-inflicted diseases caused by excessive alcohol consumption. The aim of this report is to draw attention to the above-mentioned and other problems related to the alcohol consumption in Russia, not clearly perceptible from the literature, e.g. toxicity of some legally sold alcoholic beverages.Evidence AcquisitionThis report is based on a review of literature and observations by the author during the period 1970 - 2014.ResultsPredictable increase of alcohol consumption after the anti-alcohol campaign facilitated the economical reforms of the early 1990s: workers and some intelligentsia did not oppose privatizations of state-owned enterprises partly due to their drunkenness, involvement in workplace theft and use of equipment for profit, which was often tolerated by the management at that and earlier time.ConclusionsLast time, a gradual change of the alcohol consumption pattern in Russia has been noticed: less heavy binge drinking of vodka, fortified wine and surrogates; more moderate consumption of beer.

Фармакоэпидемиологическая оценка гепатотропной терапии в условиях реальной клинической практики

Chronic liver diseases are a serious problem and a common cause of suffering and death in all countries. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major cause of chronic liver diseases. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a disease that occurs in the case of the long-term alcohol consumption. ALD may show signs of fatty liver (steatosis), alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Increase in the prevalence of ALD is also related to the increased alcohol consumption inRussia. Viral hepatitis is a global problem leading to disability and death. About 500 million people are infected with hepatitis B or C, one million annually die from liver diseases associated with hepatitis (2.7% of all deaths). The use of essential phospholipids (EPL) as hepatotropic therapy is widespread inRussia. However, the real practice on its use had not been systematically studied. Primary objective was to characterize under conditions of real life, the profile of consecutive outpatients with newly diagnosed or known diagnosis of liver conditions with gastrointestinal symptoms and receiving a treatment with EPL as an adjunctive treatment to standard care. Materials and methods. 2450 patients were included in 98 sites. Non-interventional on therapeutic strategy study consisting of two phases: Phase 1 – a cross-sectional study to assess the profile of patients who are prescribed EPL; Phase 2 (prospective ) – the follow-up study on 20% patients participated in the Phase 1to assess compliance treatment regimen. Study results. Steatosis was the most frequent liver disease (59.7% patients). Hepatic diseases related to obesity was 23.8% patients, hepatic diseases related to diabetes – 336/2450 (13.7%). Chronic viral hepatitis observed in 21.7% cases. Taking into account that 15.8% patients suffered from combined pathology, data describing morbidity structure were the following: isolated hepatic steatosis occurred in 46.7% cases, hepatic diseases related to obesity – in 12.8% and hepatic diseases related to diabetes – at 6.4%, chronic viral hepatitis – at 18.3%. Patients most often complained about feeling of pressure in the right epigastric 74.4%, general weakness and apathy – 1497/2450 (61.1%), abdominal distension – 1438/2450 (58.7%), nausea – 51.9%. Almost a third of patients complained of irritability – 35.8%, headache and muscle pain – 35.4% and lack of appetite – 26.9%. The main non-pharmacologic management measures for liver disease were: diet therapy – 1387/2450 (97.4%), complete refusal of alcohol – 1726/2450 (70.5%), daily exercise of moderate intensity – 1495/2450 (61.0%), complete smoking cessation – 608/2450 (24.8%). Most often prescribed treatment for liver diseases were hepatoprotectors at inclusion visit – 2291/2450 (93.5%), hypotensive – 1201/2450 (49.0%), hypolipidemic – 1060/2450 (43.3%), hypoglycemic – 457/2450 (18.7%) drugs. Lipotropic products administered at 319/2450 (13.0%) cases, detoxifying – in 282/2450 (11.5%), antiviral – in 147/2450 (6.0%) and immunotropic – in 73/2450 (3.0%).

The impact of alcohol consumption on patterns of union formation in Russia 1998–2010: An assessment using longitudinal data

Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, 1998–2010, we investigated the extent to which patterns of alcohol consumption in Russia are associated with the subsequent likelihood of entry into cohabitation and marriage. Using discrete-time event history analysis we estimated for 16–50 year olds the extent to which the probabilities of entry into the two types of union were affected by the amount of alcohol drunk and the pattern of drinking, adjusted to allow for social and demographic factors including income, employment, and health. The results show that individuals who did not drink alcohol were less likely to embark on either cohabitation or marriage, that frequent consumption of alcohol was associated with a greater chance of entering unmarried cohabitation than of entering into a marriage, and that heavy drinkers were less likely to convert their relationship from cohabitation to marriage.

Effects of alcohol on pregnancy and the fetus. the role of preventive measures in daily practice of an obstetrician

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects and developmental disorders. The article reviews scientific literature describing modern conceptions of alcohol-associated teratogenicity. Problems of public awareness of alcohol negative impact on pregnancy and the fetus (particularly by informing women of reproductive age and pregnant women) are raised. Literature review revealed that there is a lack of information on fetal disorders associated with alcohol consumption by the mother. Nowadays, alcohol consumption in Russia is one of the highest in the world (15.8 liters per capita per year, including newborns, 2011), which is significantly higher than the absolute level of alcohol consumption associated with serious health risk for an individual and for the population as a whole. Awareness among women of reproductive age and pregnant women is very low. Therefore, it is necessary to inform and teach physicians screening methods of medical problems associated with alcohol intake and brief intervention strategies that will help to identify and inform women at risk for having children with fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and prevent the birth of mentally retarded children. The problem of fetal alcohol syndrome and the whole spectrum of fetal alcohol disorders is of great theoretical and practical significance in Russia.

To Drink or Not to Drink: The Microeconomic Analysis of Alcohol Consumption in Russia in 2006-2010

goal of this project is to investigate the influence of economic and social factors on the demand for alcohol in modern Russia. regression models are estimated on the base of The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) 1994-2011. There are three classic models of demand for alcohol (Becker & Murphy, 1988): the static, myopic and rational addiction models. We use a two-step estimation method because of the two-step consumer decision (to or not to drink and “how much to drink”). This allows us to distinguish between the factors influencing each decision separately. contribution of this paper is to use as independent variables not only economic parameters (as prices and incomes of respondent and his\her family members) but also social characteristics such as educational level, gender, age, nationality, optimism level, alcohol use by other family members. first results have demonstrated that some social factors (education, marital status, alcohol use by other family members) are more important than economic ones such as the price of alcohol.

Social aspects of alcohol consumption in Russia

Social aspects of alcohol consumption in Russia

Revealing Macroeconomic Determinants of Alcohol Abuse and its Influence on Life Expectancy in Russia

This working paper is devoted to researching inter-regional differences in the volume and structure of alcohol consumption. To find the underlying trends and dependences, we tested hypotheses about the influence of various macroeconomic factors on alcohol consumption in Russia. The tests were completed using regression analysis based on official statistical data. Data on the volume of regional alcohol sales in liters were used as proxy variables because of the shortage of regionally divided statistical data on alcohol consumption. The data on absolute alcohol consumption in each region were obtained from the weighted-average share of spirits in each kind of alcoholic product considered. Thus, we also assessed the role of different products in total alcohol consumption.At the end of this working paper we assessed the influence of alcohol abuse on population mortality and life expectancy. Valid results were obtained for both male and female parts of the population.

Unrecorded alcohol consumption in Russia: toxic denaturants and disinfectants pose additional risks

In 2005, 30% of all alcohol consumption in Russia was unrecorded. This paper describes the chemical composition of unrecorded and low cost alcohol, including a toxicological evaluation. Alcohol products (n=22) from both recorded and unrecorded sources were obtained from three Russian cities (Saratov, Lipetsk and Irkutsk) and were chemically analyzed. Unrecorded alcohols included homemade samogons, medicinal alcohols and surrogate alcohols. Analysis included alcoholic strength, levels of volatile compounds (methanol, acetaldehyde, higher alcohols), ethyl carbamate, diethyl phthalate (DEP) and polyhexamethyleneguanidine hydrochloride (PHMG). Single samples showed contamination with DEP (275–1269 mg/l) and PHMG (515 mg/l) above levels of toxicological concern. Our detailed chemical analysis of Russian alcohols showed that the composition of vodka, samogon and medicinal alcohols generally did not raise major public health concerns other than for ethanol. It was shown, however, that concentration levels of DEP and PHMG in some surrogate alcohols make these samples unfit for human consumption as even moderate drinking would exceed acceptable daily intakes.

Drinking in transition: trends in alcohol consumption in Russia 1994-2004

BackgroundHeavy alcohol consumption is widespread in Russia, but studying changes in drinking during the transition from Communism has been hampered previously by the lack of frequent data. This paper uses 1-2 yearly panel data, comparing consumption trends with the rapid concurrent changes in economic variables (notably around the "Rouble crisis", shortly preceding the 1998 survey round), and mortality.MethodsData were from 9 rounds (1994-2004) of the 38-centre Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Respondents aged over 18 were included (>7,000 per round). Trends were measured in alcohol frequency, quantity per occasion (by beverage type) and 2 measures of potentially hazardous consumption: (i) frequent, heavy spirit drinking (≥80 g per occasion of vodka or samogon and >weekly) (ii) consuming samogon (cheap home-distilled spirit). Trends in consumption, mean household income and national mortality rates (in the same and subsequent 2 years) were compared. Finally, in a subsample of individual male respondents present in both the 1996 and 1998 rounds (before and after the financial crash), determinants of changes in harmful consumption were studied using logistic regression.ResultsFrequent, heavy spirit drinking (>80 g each time, ≥weekly) was widespread amongst men (12-17%) throughout, especially in the middle aged and less educated; with the exception of a significant, temporary drop to 10% in 1998. From 1996-2000, samogon drinking more than doubled, from 6% to 16% of males; despite a decline, levels were significantly higher in 2004 than 1996 in both sexes. Amongst women, frequent heavy spirit drinking rose non-significantly to more than 1% during the study. Heavy frequent male drinking and mortality in the same year were correlated in lower educated males, but not in women. Individual logistic regression in a male subsample showed that between 1996 and1998, those who lost their employment were more likely to cease frequent, heavy drinking; however, men who commenced drinking samogon in 1998 were more likely to be rural residents, materially poor, very heavy drinkers or pessimistic about their finances. These changes were unexplained by losses to follow-up.ConclusionsSudden economic decline in late 1990s Russia was associated with a sharp, temporary fall in heavy drinking, and a gradual and persistent increase in home distilled spirit consumption, with the latter more common amongst disadvantaged groups. The correlation between heavy drinking and national mortality in lower educated men is interesting, but the timing of RLMS surveys late in the calendar year, and the absence of any correlation between drinking and the subsequent year's mortality, makes these data hard to interpret. Potential study limitations include difficulty in measuring multiple beverages consumed per occasion, and not specifically recording "surrogate" (non-beverage) alcohols.

Population Drinking and Fatal Injuries in Eastern Europe: A Time-Series Analysis of Six Countries

Aims: To estimate to what extent injury mortality rates in 6 Eastern European countries are affected by changes in population drinking during the post-war period. Data and Methods: The analysis included injury mortality rates and per capita alcohol consumption in Russia, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and the former Czechoslovakia. Total population and gender-specific models were estimated using auto regressive integrated moving average time-series modelling. Results: The estimates for the total population were generally positive and significant. For Russia and Belarus, a 1-litre increase in per capita consumption was associated with an increase in injury mortality of 7.5 and 5.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. The estimates for the remaining countries ranged between 1.4 and 2.0. The gender-specific estimates displayed national variations similar to the total population estimates although the estimates for males were higher than for females in all countries. Conclusions: The results suggest that changes in per capita consumption have a significant impact on injury mortality in these countries, but the strength of the association tends to be stronger in countries where intoxication-oriented drinking is more common.

Alcohol and Russian mortality: a continuing crisis

Russia remains in the grip of a mortality crisis in which alcohol plays a central role. In 2007, male life expectancy at birth was 61 years, while for females it was 74 years. Alcohol is implicated particularly in deaths among working-age men. To review the current state of knowledge about the contribution of alcohol to the continuing very high mortality seen among Russian adults Conservative estimates attribute 31-43% of deaths among working-age men to alcohol. This latter estimate would imply a minimum of 170 000 excess deaths due to hazardous alcohol consumption in Russia per year. Men drink appreciably more than women in Russia. Hazardous drinking is most prevalent among people with low levels of education and those who are economically disadvantaged, partly because some of the available sources of ethanol are very cheap and easy to obtain. The best estimates available suggest that per capita consumption among adults is 15-18 litres of pure ethanol per year. However, reliable estimation of the total volume of alcohol consumed per capita in Russia is very difficult because of the diversity of sources of ethanol that are available, for many of which data do not exist. These include both illegal spirits, as well as legal non-beverage alcohols (such as medicinal tinctures). In 2006 regulations were introduced aimed at reducing the production and sale of non-beverage alcohols that are commonly drunk. These appear to have been only partially successful. There is convincing evidence that alcohol plays an important role in explaining high mortality in Russia, in particular among working age men. However, there remain important uncertainties about the precise scale of the problem and about the health effects of the distinctive pattern of alcohol consumption that is prevalent in Russia today. While there is a need for further research, enough is known to justify the development of a comprehensive inter-sectoral alcohol control strategy. The recent fall in life expectancy in Russia should give a renewed urgency to attempts to move the policy agenda forward.

Commentary: Russia's mortality crisis, alcohol and social transformation

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was generally believed that the poor state of public health in this region would improve. Instead, in many countries it became even worse. In Russia for instance, life expectancy fell by an unprecedented 6 years between 1987 and 1994. In relation to this, more than 10 years ago, Leon and his colleagues suggested that a very high level of alcohol consumption together with a habit of drinking in binges was resulting in circulatory deaths among middle aged people and accordingly, was the most important factor underpinning the dramatic fall in life expectancy in Russia. Leon et al.’s work has subsequently become a classic in the field. They were among the first to suggest that the sharply increasing mortality rates were not just an artefact resulting from changes in classification practices or inadequate population estimates. Instead, they pioneered the idea that binge drinking might be an important determinant of circulatory death. It is against this background that another timely, and important addition to the literature has been produced, which again suggests that alcohol is the main contributor to the post-communist public health crisis in Russia. The so-called ‘alcohol hypothesis’ has not gone unchallenged. The social and economic changes that occurred during the early 1990s were huge and for a majority of Russians life certainly changed for the worse. The introduction of ‘shock therapy’ in 1992 was followed by falling real wages, mass unemployment, hyper inflation with many Russians becoming impoverished. This suggests that if we want to gain a full understanding of the public health crisis and people’s behaviours during this period, we have to look at the wider social, economic and political context. By doing this, it does not mean that the role of alcohol is in any way diminished, rather, it means that sociological factors are important for the explanation of both health and lifestyles. Making use of detailed data from across time, Zaridze et al.’s article not only contributes to our understanding of the aetiology of the Russian mortality crisis, but importantly, it also highlights the argument that social factors are vital for our understanding when it comes to alcohol and alcohol-related problems. For example, earlier research has suggested that there may be a close connection between economic factors and alcohol consumption in Russia as heavy alcohol consumption is particularly common among men who are likely to have lost out during the transition, while poor men in Russia are simultaneously more likely to binge drink and abstain from alcohol than are those men in a better economic position. Russia is a ‘wet’ drinking culture and the answer to the question why people drink goes deep both into its history and to the present social transition. The need for more ‘joinedup’ research that links the epidemiological with the sociological also emanates from the disadvantages specific to each approach i.e. the use of indirect measures of alcohol behaviours, such as deaths from liver cirrhosis, alcohol poisoning, heart disease and, perhaps, a lack of social context in epidemiological studies; while the sociological or survey approach can often suffer from problems of non-response, underreporting and or difficulties arising from using a cross-sectional design. Working in conjunction with one another, however, these approaches can help us to gain not only a better understanding of the public health crisis in Russia, but also of health and health related behaviours in general.

Alcohol Use in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Russian Women

Alcohol consumption in Russia is reportedly high for both men and women; most studies of Russian drinking have used questionnaires not designed specifically to measure alcohol consumption or to interview women. This study was designed specifically to measure drinking patterns among pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women. Eight hundred ninety-nine women of child-bearing age in St. Petersburg, Russia, were interviewed in employment centers, educational centers, and at obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) clinics and hospitals. Measurement of drinking used several types of drinking questions and time frames. Nearly all nonpregnant Russian women (95.9%) reported consuming alcohol in the last 12 months. Among nonpregnant women drinkers, 7.6% reported drinking heavily (29.58 mL or more ethanol/d), and 18.4% reported drinking >or=5 on at least 1 occasion. Contrary to expectations of Russian obstetricians, pregnant Russian women readily answered detailed questions about their drinking behavior during pregnancy. Nearly all pregnant women drank in the year before they became pregnant; of these, 60.0% reported drinking when they knew they were pregnant, and 34.9% drank in the past 30 days. Among pregnant women who drank in the past 30 days, 7.4% reporting having >or=5 drinks on at least 1 occasion. Nevertheless, more than 90% of pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women believed that alcohol has a detrimental effect on pregnancy outcomes. Pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women were willing to answer detailed questions about their drinking behavior. Although most pregnant women studied reduced their drinking during pregnancy, one-third of the pregnant women did not stop drinking. It is important to find out what enabled two-thirds of the pregnant women to stop drinking before or during their pregnancy.

Rational alcohol addiction: evidence from the Russian longitudinal monitoring survey

Alcohol consumption in Russia is legendary and has been reported to be the third leading cause of death in the former Soviet Union after heart disease and cancer. Are Russian alcohol consumers rational addicts? This paper uses eight rounds of a nationally representative Russian survey spanning the period 1994-2003 to estimate a rational addiction (RA) model for alcohol consumption. This is done in a panel data setting as well as on a wave-by-wave basis. The profile of the Russian drinker finds a huge difference between males and females and the model is estimated by gender. We do not find support for the RA model in Russia for women. For men, although we find that some implications of the RA model are satisfied, we fail to endorse the model empirically on grounds of implausible negative estimates of the discount rate.