RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: This study aims to examine the causal effect of alcohol consumption on the risk of high blood pressure in Russia. DESIGN AND METHODS: Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, we estimated the influence of alcohol consumption on high blood pressure, controlling for social and other factors related to alcohol use. To address the issue of causality, we instrumented alcohol consumption by the number of frequent alcohol drinkers in the household. RESULTS: We found that frequent consumption of vodka and beer has an adverse impact on health. In particular, frequent vodka consumption increases the likelihood of high blood pressure by 2.88% while frequent beer consumption increases it by 2.06%. Controlling for the endogeneity of frequent alcohol consumption using the instrumental variable method produces an even larger effect for frequent vodka consumption, with a marginal effect of 7.23%. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Prevention policies as well as government programs aimed at treating alcohol-related health outcomes should take into consideration the significant adverse effect of alcohol consumption on high blood pressure. It is also recommended that policy interventions aimed to address alcohol addiction issues in Russia explicitly differentiate between vodka and beer drinkers.
Asunto(s)
Consumo de Bebidas Alcohólicas/efectos adversos , Consumo de Bebidas Alcohólicas/epidemiología , Bebidas Alcohólicas/efectos adversos , Hipertensión/epidemiología , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Bebidas Alcohólicas/estadística & datos numéricos , Femenino , Humanos , Hipertensión/diagnóstico , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Factores de Riesgo , Federación de Rusia/epidemiología , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
The authors provide an overview of Turkey's healthcare financing. After comparing financing data on Turkey and other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, they examine Turkey's performance on a wide range of healthcare input and outcome indicators using descriptive data drawn from the World Health Organization, World Bank, OECD, and Turkish Statistical Institute. The data analysis shows that Turkey ranks low by a number of key healthcare indicators across the OECD countries. Empirical analysis suggests that although many factors are associated with improvements in healthcare outcomes, a significant part of changes in life expectancy at birth are associated with higher spending on healthcare.