Russian vodka drinkers die early
Men have 35 per cent chance of dying before age 55, study finds
LONDON — Russian men who down large amounts of vodka — and too many do — have an “extraordinarily” high risk of an early death, a new study says.
Researchers tracked about 151,000 adult men in the Russian cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010. They interviewed them about their drinking habits and, when about 8,000 later died, followed up to monitor their causes of death.
The risk of dying before age 55 for those who said they drank three or more half-litre bottles of vodka a week was a shocking 35 per cent.
Overall, a quarter of Russian men die before reaching 55, compared with seven per cent of men in the United Kingdom and less than one per cent in the U.S. The life expectancy for men in Russia is 64 years — placing it among the lowest 50 countries in the world in that category.
It’s not clear how many Russian men drink three bottles or more a week. Lead researcher Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University said the average Russian adult drinks 20 litres of vodka per year, while the average Briton drinks about three litres of spirits.
“Russians clearly drink a lot, but it’s this pattern of getting really smashed on vodka and then continuing to drink that is dangerous,” Peto said.
“The rate of men dying prematurely in Russia is totally out of line with the rest of Europe,” he said.
Peto said there was some evidence of a similar effect in Russian women who drank heavily, but there was not enough data to draw a broad conclusion.