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"Half of all premature deaths of working age Russian men are due to alcohol consumption." Color me skeptical on that. The average life expectancy of Russian ma

by wooster 17y ago

"Half of all premature deaths of working age Russian men are due to alcohol consumption." Color me skeptical on that. The average life expectancy of Russian males in 2008 was 61.83, whereas the retirement age in Russia is 60. I can't find statistics on working age males specifically, but the general breakdown of causes of death among Russians as a population suggests that cardiovascular disease and cancer (which could include conditions caused by alcohol consumption) would swamp deaths caused by alcohol consumption itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia#Health http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia#Health I'd be genuinely curious to see any stats you have contradicting that analysis, however.

jasonkester 17y ago
Have you ever been to Russia? Walk the streets of Moscow at 7am, and you'll see businessmen on their way to work, halfway through their first bottle of vodka. It's hard to believe if you don't see it, but a significant fraction of the people there are drunk or drinking all the time. So no, even though I haven't seen any hard numbers, I don't have any problem believing the grandparent's claim.
- wooster 17y ago
  Yes, that's certainly fine anecdotal evidence, and I'm well aware of the "drunken Russian" stereotype, but I'm looking for hard numbers. For example, alcohol consumption per capita (among those 15 years and older) in Russia is less than Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Ireland, Nigeria, etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co...
akamaka 17y ago
I don't know the details, I just googled "Russia alcoholism deaths" to get that figure.
- wooster 17y ago
  Ah, well that helped me track the 50% blurb down to this article in Lancet: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60941-6/abstract http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67... Which was a study of one town in Russia. Their interpretation of the results includes this line: "Almost half of all deaths in working age men in a typical Russian city may be accounted for by hazardous drinking." From my brief research, it looks like most articles online replaced "typical Russian city" with "Russia", which seems unfounded given the research.
  - akamaka 17y ago
    Nice catch. It's funny how it changes slightly with each retelling.

by wooster 17y ago

jasonkester 17y ago

Have you ever been to Russia? Walk the streets of Moscow at 7am, and you'll see businessmen on their way to work, halfway through their first bottle of vodka. It's hard to believe if you don't see it, but a significant fraction of the people there are drunk or drinking all the time. So no, even though I haven't seen any hard numbers, I don't have any problem believing the grandparent's claim.

wooster 17y ago
Yes, that's certainly fine anecdotal evidence, and I'm well aware of the "drunken Russian" stereotype, but I'm looking for hard numbers. For example, alcohol consumption per capita (among those 15 years and older) in Russia is less than Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Ireland, Nigeria, etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co...

akamaka 17y ago

I don't know the details, I just googled "Russia alcoholism deaths" to get that figure.

wooster 17y ago
Ah, well that helped me track the 50% blurb down to this article in Lancet: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60941-6/abstract http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67... Which was a study of one town in Russia. Their interpretation of the results includes this line: "Almost half of all deaths in working age men in a typical Russian city may be accounted for by hazardous drinking." From my brief research, it looks like most articles online replaced "typical Russian city" with "Russia", which seems unfounded given the research.
- akamaka 17y ago
  Nice catch. It's funny how it changes slightly with each retelling.