Population Drinkung and Suicide Trends: A Cross-Country Comparison

Abstract

Background: The Slavic countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU) Russia, Belarus and Ukraine retain one ofthe highest suicide rates in the world, despite a gradual decline over the past decade. Aims: The present study aims to analyze whether population drinking is able to explain the dramaticfluctuations in suicide mortality in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine from the late Soviet to post-Soviet period. Method: Trends in sex-specific suicide rates and alcohol sales per capita from 1980 to 2010 in Russia Belarusand Ukraine were analyzed employing a Spearman's rank-order correlation analysis. Results: The estimates based on the Soviet data suggest a strong association between alcohol sales and suiciderates in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. At the same time, the relationship between alcohol sales and suicide rates was negative in the post-Soviet period. Conclusion: The findings from present study suggest that the suicide mortality fluctuations in Russia, Belarusand Ukraine in the Soviet period were attributable to alcohol. Alternatively, alcohol can not fully explain the fluctuations in the suicide mortality observed in these countries in the Soviet period. Similar regional pattern of suicide trends do not support the hypothesis that alcohol control policy was responsible for the decline in Russian suicide mortality during recent decade.