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Abstract
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Road traffic injuries are the eight leading cause of death globally and the leading cause of death for children and young adults. According to prognosis, the worldwide road traffic injuries rank among the causes of death will climb to the fifth place by 2030, resulting in an estimated 2.4 million fatalities each year. It is estimated that in the European Union 1.3 million road traffic accidents occur each year, resulting in 1.7 million injuries and over 40,000 deaths annually. The direct and indirect costs of these accidents sums up to 160 billion euro, equal to 2% of the gross national product of the European Union (EU).
Alcohol has been identified as one of the most significant risk factors for road traffic crashes in many developed and developing countries of the world. Alcohol attributable fractions of the mortality from road traffic accidents vary widely from country to country. Babor and colleagues concluded that, in high income countries, around 20% of drivers fatally injured in road traffic accidents have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above the legal limit, with higher rates in low and middle-income countries. According to the European Commission estimates 25% of all road deaths across the EU are alcohol-related. Alcohol remains a factor in 41% of the traffic deaths recorded in the US.
Russia has one of the world's highest road traffic fatality rates due to drunk driving, poor road conditions, an outdated vehicle fleet. Each year, approximately 30,000 Russians die in road accidents - about the same as in the EU. Road safety has attracted attention at the top levels of Russian politics; receiving mention in Putin's 2006 annual address to the Federal Assembly and serves as the centerpiece of a national speech by Medvedev in August 2009.
There is common believe that high level of alcohol consumption in conjunction with binge drinking pattern is a major determinant of high violent mortality rates in Russia. Over the past 10 years, almost 40,000 Russians have died in road accidents caused by drunk drivers. A large retrospective case-control study in three Russian industrial cities found dose-response association between alcohol consumption and mortality from road accidents: drinking of three or more bottles of vodka per week was strongly associated with deaths from road accidents both among men (RR = 4.20; CI: 3.31-5.34) and women (RR = 4.48; CI: 3.38-5.96). Although drunk driving officially accounts for 7.2% of all road traffic crashes at the national level, its proportion increases to one-fifth in some federal regions. Furthermore, the most recent individual-level estimates suggest that 46.1% of all deaths from road accidents (47.7% and 41.0% of deaths among men and women respectively) were attributable to alcohol consumption.
In relation to this, the aim of the present study was to discuss the possible determinants of dramatic fluctuations in mortality from road traffic accidents during the recent decades in Russia with special focus on alcohol.
Language: en |