Alcohol consumption accounts for a major proportion of the health gap between the new and the old Member States

The results of the project showed that alcohol is a strong contributor to the health gap between the new and old Member States with both average consumption and patterns of drinking contributing to the burden of disease and injury[1].

Alcohol is responsible for 25% of the gap in premature adult mortality for men in the age group 20-64 (1.02 years of life expectancy), and for 6% of the gap for women (0.09 years of the life expectancy).

Two factors may determine the much higher alcohol related harm in Eastern parts of the EU.

- The patterns of drinking: Binge drinking is the predominant way of consuming alcohol in the Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) and Poland where daily consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol is practically non-existent (According to a Polish study, less that 1% of the population claims to drink this way);

- The quality of the beverages: In the southern part of the region, a large proportion of the alcohol consumed is home-made, which is likely to contain significant quantities of toxic long chain alcohols, characterised by their high hepatotixicity. In the Baltic countries on the other hand, the problem is more the use of surrogate alcohols (i.e. substances containing ethanol but not intended for consumption, including medicinal compounds, aftershaves, and technical spirits) which are also likely to contain significant amounts of long chain alcohols.

One of the conclusions of the project was that a sizeable portion of the health gap between the EU10 and the EU15 countries could be reduced if known feasible and cost-effective measures to reduce alcohol-related burden were implemented in the EU10 countries (drinking patterns and quality of alcoholic beverages).

The other two major health determinants responsible for the European health gap identified by the project were:

-Fatal injuries. Fatal Injuries account for nearly half of the premature adult mortality in men in the Baltic States. Unlike the rest of the new EU Member States, where there has been a downward trend in the last decade similar to that of the EU15, fatal injuries in the Baltic States continues at a very high rate. The analyses carried out by the project indicated that the cause leading to the very high level of fatal injuries is alcohol. Alcohol-attributable injuries amount to 48% of all injuries in the Baltic countries, 50% in the rest of the New Member States and to 30% in the EU15.

-Tobacco. Although tobacco is the leading cause of premature death in all parts of the EU, tobacco-attributed mortality among men is now higher in the East.

For more information about the project

http://www.hem.waw.pl/

Scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals produced by the Project:

Comparing alcohol consumption in central and eastern Europe to other European countries.
Popova S, Rehm J, Patra J, Zatonski W
Alcohol and Alcoholholism. 2007 Feb 8

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/agl124v3

The East-West Health Gap in Europe--what are the causes?
Zatonski W
European Journal of Public Health 2007; doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckm006

http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/ckm006?ijkey=tgnH0VWffGcb3Dj&keytype=ref

The contribution of leading diseases and risk factors to excess losses of healthy life in eastern Europe: burden of disease study.
Powles J, Zatonski W, Vander Hoorn S, Ezzati M
BMC Public Health 2005, 5:116

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-5-116.pdf

[1] The main alcohol-attributable causes of premature death in Europe are:

1. Unintentional and intentional injuries

2. Liver cirrhosis

3. Cardiovascular diseases (protective effect of regular moderate drinking vs. detrimental effect of binge drinking)

4. Cancer: Mouth & oropharyngeal cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer, colorectal cancer