TY - JOUR A1 - Stoppel, Relika T1 - Alcohol availability and alcohol-attributable mortality BT - economic implications following a change in sales policy JF - CESifo economic studies : CESifo, a joint initiative of the University of Munich's Center for Economic Studies and the Ifo Institute N2 - It is commonly known that irresponsible alcohol use can have adverse effects. For some people, it results in health problems, for others in productivity loss, and some experience the worst possible outcome of alcohol misuse - death. This paper estimates the effect of reduced alcohol sales hours on alcohol-attributable mortality (AAM) in Estonia. Using novel mortality data from 1997 to 2015, this paper analyzes the effect of alcohol sales policies at both the county level and the country level. By applying the difference-in-differences method and the ARIMA model, this paper finds that the alcohol sales policy reduced AAM to between 1.710 and 2.401 deaths per 100,000 per month, which equals a reduction of 31% to 40% in AAM deaths. These findings suggest that individuals who are the most at risk of dying from alcohol-attributable causes of death benefit remarkably from reduced alcohol availability. KW - health policy KW - mortality KW - public health KW - alcohol Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifab008 SN - 1610-241X SN - 1612-7501 VL - 67 IS - 4 SP - 463 EP - 487 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neufeld, Maria A1 - Bobrova, Anastacia A1 - Davletov, Kairat A1 - Stelemekas, Mindaugas A1 - Stoppel, Relika A1 - Ferreira-Borges, Carina A1 - Breda, Joao A1 - Rehm, Jürgen T1 - Alcohol control policies in Former Soviet Union countries BT - a narrative review of three decades of policy changes and their apparent effects JF - Drug and alcohol review N2 - Issues The last Soviet anti-alcohol campaign of 1985 resulted in considerably reduced alcohol consumption and saved thousands of lives. But once the campaign's policies were abandoned and the Soviet alcohol monopoly broken up, a steep rise in mortality was observed in many of the newly formed successor countries, although some kept their monopolies. Almost 30 years after the campaign's end, the region faces diverse challenges in relation to alcohol. Approach The present narrative review sheds light on recent drinking trends and alcohol policy developments in the 15 Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries, highlighting the most important setbacks, achievements and best practices. Vignettes of alcohol control policies in Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Uzbekistan are presented to illustrate the recent developments.
Key Findings Over the past decade, drinking levels have declined in almost all FSU countries, paralleled by the introduction of various alcohol-control measures. The so-called three 'best buys' put forward by the World Health Organization to reduce alcohol-attributable burden (taxation and other measures to increase price, restrictions on alcohol availability and marketing) are relatively well implemented across the countries. Implications In recent years, evidence-based alcohol policies have been actively implemented as a response to the enormous alcohol-attributable burden in many of the countries, although there is big variance across and within different jurisdictions. Conclusion Strong declines in alcohol consumption were observed in the 15 FSU countries, which have introduced various alcohol control measures in recent years, resulting in a reduction of alcohol consumption in the World Health Organization European region overall. KW - alcohol KW - alcohol policy KW - Eastern Europe KW - Former Soviet Union KW - mortality Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13204 SN - 0959-5236 SN - 1465-3362 VL - 40 IS - 3 SP - 350 EP - 367 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER -