Correlations between Retail Alcohol Sales and Incidence Rates in the Population of the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation

Introduction: High incidence rates in the population of the Russian Federation are among the key public health challenges and an important aspect of national security. The role of alcohol abuse in the development of physical diseases has not been fully determined yet.

Objective: To establish correlations between the volumes of retail sales of alcoholic beverages with more than 9 % alcohol by volume and incidence rates in the population of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the year 2020.

Materials and methods: We have analyzed the relationships between statistics on retail alcohol sales and incidence rates in the population of 84 constituent entities of the Russian Federation by the main disease categories in 2020 using a one-factor regression model, the Mann Whitney U test, calculations of odds ratios and a 95 % confidence interval. The differences were regarded as statistically significant at p < 0.05.

Study limitations: A statistically significant correlation between retail alcohol sales and incidence rates in the population is not convincing evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship.

Results: We established positive correlations between retail sales of alcohol beverages per capita and the incidence rates of all diseases (p < 0.001); malignant neoplasms (p < 0.001); respiratory diseases (p < 0.001); infectious diseases (p < 0.001); diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (p = 0.025); diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue (p = 0.007); injury, poisoning and other consequences of external causes (p < 0.001); alcohol-induced mental disorders (p < 0.001), and cardiovascular diseases (p < 0.05 for the differences between the first and second quartiles).

Conclusions: Retail alcohol sales correlate statistically with the incidence rates in the population of the Russian Federation, thus necessitating better promotion of a healthy lifestyle as a way to reduce the burden of disease.

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