IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurpop/v33y2017i5d10.1007_s10680-017-9450-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alcohol-Related Causes of Death and Drinking Patterns in Moldova as Compared to Russia and Ukraine

Author

Listed:
  • Olga Penina

    (Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy)

Abstract

Most studies dedicated to alcohol-related mortality in the former USSR countries explore the situation primarily in Russia and Belarus, while somewhat less so in Ukraine. In these countries, the consumption of spirits is one of the main contributors to a huge decline in adult health since the mid-60s, especially among males. Moldova, also an ex-Soviet country, is quite different in that their drinking habits are much closer to those of the Mediterranean drinking culture, although they are still like Russia and Ukraine in that their level of alcohol consumption is among the highest in the world while life expectancy at birth is one of the lowest among developed countries. This study provides a descriptive analysis of the changes in alcohol-related mortality trends and drinking patterns in Moldova as compared to Ukraine and Russia, both during the Soviet period and after Independence. We found that accidental poisoning by alcohol in Moldova is of minor importance in contrast to Russia and Ukraine, whereas very high liver cirrhosis mortality without a traditional sex gap is a peculiar feature of the Moldovan mortality pattern. Furthermore, the burden of liver cirrhosis accounts for much lower Moldovan female life expectancy compared to their Russian or Ukrainian counterparts. We attempt to explain this phenomenon by hypothesizing the existence of harmful drinking habits of homemade wine consumption in Moldova, which seems to affect males and females equally. In Moldova, the anti-alcohol policies must include the measures aimed at reducing the consumption of homemade wine.

Suggested Citation

  • Olga Penina, 2017. "Alcohol-Related Causes of Death and Drinking Patterns in Moldova as Compared to Russia and Ukraine," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 679-700, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:33:y:2017:i:5:d:10.1007_s10680-017-9450-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-017-9450-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10680-017-9450-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10680-017-9450-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olga Penina & Dmitri A. Jdanov & Pavel Grigoriev, 2015. "Producing reliable mortality estimates in the context of distorted population statistics: the case of Moldova," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2015-011, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Olga PENINA, 2015. "Reconstruction Of The Continuity Of Cause-Specific Mortality Trends For The Republic Of Moldova," ECONOMY AND SOCIOLOGY: Theoretical and Scientifical Journal, Socionet;Complexul Editorial "INCE", issue 2, pages 70-77.
    3. Nataliia Levchuk, 2009. "Alcohol and mortality in Ukraine," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. repec:cai:poeine:pope_1003_0499 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth Brainerd, 2021. "Mortality in Russia Since the Fall of the Soviet Union," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(4), pages 557-576, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elena HRUSCIOV, 2017. "Population Ageing Determinants In The Republic Of Moldova And Selected European Countries," ECONOMY AND SOCIOLOGY: Theoretical and Scientifical Journal, Socionet;Complexul Editorial "INCE", issue 1-2, pages 148-158.
    2. Irina PAHOMII & Vitalie ȘTÎRBA, 2018. "Mortality From External Causes Of Death In The Republic Of Moldova," ECONOMY AND SOCIOLOGY: Theoretical and Scientifical Journal, Socionet;Complexul Editorial "INCE", issue 2, pages 95-103.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:33:y:2017:i:5:d:10.1007_s10680-017-9450-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.