Russian scientists in cooperation with their English and German colleagues have studied effect of alcoholism on life interval of adult men of Russian city of Izhevsk and came to an interesting conclusion.

The problem of alcoholism in Russian has attracted attention of an international think tank with participants from Izhevsk Medical Academy and Izhevsk Institute of Social Technologies, Russia; from Max Planck Institute of Demographic Studies, Rostok, Germany and from London Scholl of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Great Britain. Researchers have studied mode of living and alcohol consumption level of male population of the city of Izhevsk and concluded a sad thing: excessive alcohol consumption is not the main factor, which shortens human life, but men kill themselves by drinking other alcohol-containing liquids, such as eau-de-Cologne, polisher and braking fluid, too much. Results of the study were published in the international medical magazine “Lancet”.

Scientists have investigated mode of living and alcohol consumption level of about two thousand men, aged between 25 and 54 years, who died in Izhevsk during last two years. As for control group, random men of comparable age categories, who were in good health and dwelled in the same city for the period of the research, were chosen.

Aim of the study was revealing contribution of drinking alcohol and other bad habits, as well as common way of living of Izhevsk male population, into life shortening. For this purpose research fellows have analyzed all available data on their testees: level of education, information about families, employment background, possible bad habits and et cetera. Curious scientists have found out how often Izhevsk men drank, about periods of heavy drinking and their favourite drinks – beer, wine, vodka or other strong drinks. Among study issues was the question about drinking technical spirits and other alcohol-containing liquids, which usually are not allowed for drinking.

Statistical analysis of obtained data was performed by means of specialized software and resulted in an unexpected conclusion – most significant life shortening factor, sharing 42%, is drinking eau-de-Cologne, polisher, braking fluid and other technical substances, not drinking vodka or wine. Men, who often drink something from the list above, usually cannot boast they live long.

However, scientists claim they still do not understand whether these liquids are direct cause of high death-rate or they simply indicate level of alcoholism and social degradation of men. These questions require further studies.

Russia now suffers from a demographic catastrophe, which mostly affects Russian men – their average life duration is only 59 years, number common for third world countries. Obviously, there exist many factors, influencing life shortening, and among them excessive alcohol drinking is in top five. Further studies are required for finding out most dangerous factor.

Source:
    Russian Science News

Kizilova Anna