Citation

Barták M. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 2019; 80(5): 503-504.

Affiliation

Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague, Department of Addictology, Public Health Centre for Alcohol Related Harm, Head of the Centre, Apolinářská 4, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

DOI

10.15288/jsad.2019.80.503

PMID

31603749

Abstract

In the last 30 years, major changes have taken place in Europe in patterns of alcohol consumption and related policies. As a social scientist born in 1980, I am pleased to comment on the article by Nemtsov et al. (2019, this issue), because the period analyzed by the authors is essentially the story of my life. I can remember the first part of the analyzed period only as a young person who was acquiring information about the world and its drinking habits. I can also remember the second part as a young (recently getting older) academic person who was encountering alcohol use and its consequences in my own personal career.

The health effects of alcohol in the Russian population have been recognized and, in general, often simplified in Czechoslovakia where I was born. Now they are again recognized in the Czech Republic where I currently live. Although both the topic and the authors are well known in the academic world of alcohol studies, this article is definitely worth reading because of the in-depth perspective it provides.

In the Introduction section, the authors present an overview of the literature that summarizes the situation in the Russian Federation in the observed period. I would have preferred to see even more emphasis on the differences in alcohol use, mortality, and life expectancy between women and men. The authors rightly draw attention to the dramatic changes in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. I am impressed by the progress that has been achieved in Russia since 2003, when a number of negative indicators began declining. The results of the period between 2003 and 2017 are remarkable ...

Language: en