Does history has something to do with the amount that people drink? A recent report by WHO titled ?Global Report on Alcohol and Health 2014? would suggest that is the case. The report lists 10 countries where residents consumed more than 13 litres per person as of 2010. The heaviest drinkers are to be found in Belarus, where residents consumed 17.5 litres on an average. According to WHO, these are the countries with the highest per capita consumption in the world. Nearly all of the countries with the highest levels of alcohol consumption are located in eastern Europe. These include Russia and other former Soviet Union nations such as Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine. The only entry in the top 10 that is not located in eastern Europe is Andorra, a principality between France and Spain in the Pyrenees. Women in the other nine countries are also heavy drinkers compared to women in other countries. The heaviest-drinking countries overall include six nations where women consumed the most alcohol.
Eastern Europeans and Russians, in particular, have historically been prone to excessive alcohol intake. Alcoholism has been a problem throughout Russia?s history because drinking is a pervasive, socially acceptable behaviour in society. A recent study in The Lancet says 25% of Russian men die before they are 55 years old and most of the deaths are due to alcohol. Causes of death include liver disease and alcohol poisoning. Many also die in accidents or after getting into fights. As per Tom Donaldson, president of the National Organisation on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS), historical and societal factors explain why certain countries have higher rates of consumption. The Russian love for vodka originally extended to erstwhile Soviet Union, and eight of the top 10 alcohol-consuming countries were once part of that empire. Residents in many of these areas may also lack the information necessary to make informed health decisions. As Donaldson points out, ?In some of those areas, there are no public health awareness efforts whatsoever about the effects of alcohol consumption.? Eight of the nations with the highest consumption did not have public policy initiatives to address the effects of alcohol consumption on the general public.
Residents in these countries were also often among the most likely to suffer from alcohol-use disorders. Five of the heaviest-drinking countries also had, among the 10, highest prevalence of alcohol-use disorders. These include alcoholism and other forms of health-damaging use of alcohol. Such disorders lead to physical problems such as liver cirrhosis and mental illnesses such as depression. The three nations with the highest rates of alcohol-use disorders?Hungary, Russia and Belarus?were all among the 10 heaviest-drinking nations. Of the 3.3 million alcohol-related deaths worldwide, a third were caused by cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Unintentional injuries accounted for 17.1% of alcohol-related deaths. Various types of cancer, gastrointestinal diseases and intentional self-harm were also common causes of deaths related to alcohol. In five of these nations, 30% of deaths in 2012 were alcohol-related compared to 5.9% of deaths worldwide. Not surprisingly, life expectancies in the nations with heavy alcohol use are also shorter. The average life expectancy at birth in western Europe was 79.3 years as of 2012, far higher than in the heaviest-drinking nations. In Romania, the average life expectancy was just 68.7 years. In Russia and Ukraine, the average life expectancy was below 72 years. Liquor, as the saying goes, is quicker.
