Deaths from alcohol and violence in Moscow: Socio-economic determinants

Objective: To examine the association between accidental, violent and alcohol related adult mortality in the Russian capital and socio-economic status characteristics such as educational status, occupational group and marital status. Data and methods: individual death records for Moscow City for the years 1994 and 1995, for 86121 deaths between the ages of 20-59. Proportional mortality analysis was used to compare trends for alcohol related deaths and accidental and violent deaths (representing 5 and 28% of all deaths in this age group), with multiple controls consisting of deaths from cancer at various sites. Results: The probability of death from alcohol related diseases increased as education level decreased, with those men failing to complete secondary education over two and a half times as likely to die from these causes than men with higher education. Blue collar workers were also much more likely to die from these causes than white collar workers. Marriage had a marked protective effect for both men and women. Conclusion: Despite 75 years of official egalitarian ideology, there are marked socio-economic differentials in mortality in Russia. For the causes of death analysed, socio-economic mortality differentials were greater for women than for men.