Impact of alcohol on mortality in Eastern Europe: trends and policy responses

ENWithin the global context, Eastern Europe has been repeatedly identified as the area with the highest levels of alcohol-related health harms. Although the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union collapsed soon afterwards, alcohol-related mortality in Eastern Europe remains far higher than in Western Europe. However, despite the high burden of alcohol harm and mortality in Eastern Europe, with the partial exception of Russia, relatively little is known about the country-specific impact of alcohol on health and mortality and the various policy responses to it. In response to this, an international symposium was held in Vilnius, Lithuania in June 2017 entitled Persisting burden of alcohol in Central and Eastern Europe: recent evidence and measurement issues. This special section of Drug and Alcohol Review is based on a selection of the papers presented at this symposium, providing for the first time a broad overview of the problem of alcohol-related mortality in a diverse range of Eastern European countries linked to a description and analysis of alcohol control initiatives that have been developed. While there is strong evidence of the influence of history, culture and education across European countries having a profound and persistent effect on differences in drinking patterns and preferences, there is, nevertheless, evidence that effective policy responses have been mounted in a range of countries. [From the publication]

• Alcohol-related male mortality in the context of changing alcohol control policy in Lithuania 2000-2017 / Daumantas Stumbrys, Tadas Telksnys, Domantas Jasilionis, Vaida Liutkutė Gumarov, Lukas Galkus, Nijolė Goštautaitė Midttun, Mindaugas Štelemėkas. Drug and alcohol review. 2020, 39, p. 818-826.
• Are restrictions in sales hours of alcohol associated with fewer emergency room visits in Lithuania? An interrupted time-series analysis / Huan Jiang, Alexander Tran, Janina Petkevičienė, Mindaugas Štelemėkas, Shannon Lange, Jürgen Rehm. Drug and alcohol review. 2023, vol. 42, iss. 2, p. 487-494.
• Contrasts in alcohol-related mortality in Czechia and Lithuania: analysis of time trends and educational differences / Markéta Pechholdová, Domantas Jasilionis. Drug and alcohol review. 2020, 39, p. 846-856.
• Holding policy makers to account: monitoring voting patterns on alcohol and tobacco policy in the Lithuanian Parliament / Mindaugas Štelemėkas, Lukas Galkus, Vaida Liutkutė Gumarov, Nijolė Goštautaitė Midttun, Laura Miščikienė. Drug and alcohol review. 2020, vol. 39, iss. 7, p. 827-834.
• Recent life expectancy divergence in Baltic countries / Domantas Jasilionis, France Meslé, Vladimir M. Shkolnikov, Jacques Vallin. European Journal of Population 2011, 27, 4, p. 403-431.
• Retrospective voting in Central and Eastern Europe: hyper-accountability, corruption or socio-economic inequality? / Mažvydas Jastramskis, Vytautas Kuokštis, Matas Baltrukevičius. Party politics. 2019, first online (October), pdf (13 p.).
• Review of the Lithuanian alcohol control legislation in 1990-2020 / Laura Miščikienė, Nijolė Goštautaitė Midttun, Lukas Galkus, Gražina Belian, Janina Petkevičienė, Justina Vaitkevičiūtė, Mindaugas Štelemėkas. International journal of environmental research and public health. 2020, 17, 10, 1 pdf (16 p.).
• Spatial patterns of male alcohol-related mortality in Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Russia / Pavel Grigoriev, Domantas Jasilionis, Sebastian Klüsener, Sergey Timonin, Evgeny Andreev, France Meslé, Jacques Vallin. Drug and alcohol review. 2020, 39, p. 835-845.