Citation

Razvodovsky YE. J. Inj. Violence Res. 2012; 4(2): 58-64.

Affiliation

Grodno State Medical University, Belarus. yury_razvodovsky@mail.ru; razvodovsky@tut.by.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences)

DOI

10.5249/jivr.v4i2.100

PMID

21502784

Abstract

BACKGROUND: High accidental death rates in the former Soviet republics (FSR) and its profound fluctuation over the past decades have attracted considerable interest. The research evidences emphasize binge drinking pattern as a potentially important contributor to accident mortality crisis in FSR. In line with this evidence we assume that higher level of alcohol consumption in con-junction with binge drinking pattern results in close aggregate-level association between alcohol psychoses and accidental death rates in the former Soviet Slavic republic Belarus. METHODS: Trends in alcohol psychoses rate (as a proxy for alcohol consumption) from 1979 to 2007 were analyzed employing a distributed lag analysis in order to asses bivariate relation-ship between the two time series. RESULTS: According to the Bureau of Forensic Medicine autopsy reports the number of deaths due to accidents and injuries increased by 52.5% (from 62.3 to 95.0 per 100.000 of residents), and fatal alcohol poisoning rate increased by 108.6% (from 12.8 to 26.7 per 100.000 of residents) in Belarus between 1979 and 2007. Alcohol in blood was found in 50.1% victims of deaths from accidents and injuries for the whole period, with the minimum figure 40% in 1986 and maximum 58.2% in 2005. The outcome of distributed lags analysis indicated statistically significant association between the number of alcohol psychoses cases and the number BAC-positive deaths from accidents at zero lag. CONCLUSIONS: The outcome of this study supports previous findings suggesting that alcohol and deaths from accidents are closely connected in a culture with prevailing intoxication-oriented drinking pattern, and add to growing body of evidence that a substantial proportion of accidental deaths in Belarus are due to effects of binge drinking.

Language: en