Department of Economics, Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2013 May;32(3):248-53. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2012.00521.x. Epub 2012 Oct 14.
This study aims to examine the causal effect of alcohol consumption on the risk of high blood pressure in Russia.
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.
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%.
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.
本研究旨在探讨俄罗斯饮酒与高血压风险之间的因果关系。
利用俄罗斯纵向监测调查的数据，我们控制了与饮酒相关的社会和其他因素，估计了饮酒对高血压的影响。为了解决因果关系问题，我们通过家庭中频繁饮酒者的数量来为饮酒行为做工具变量。
我们发现，频繁饮用伏特加和啤酒会对健康产生不良影响。具体来说，频繁饮用伏特加会使高血压的可能性增加 2.88%，而频繁饮用啤酒会使高血压的可能性增加 2.06%。使用工具变量法控制频繁饮酒的内生性，会使伏特加的频繁饮用对高血压的边际效应更大，达到 7.23%。
预防政策以及针对与酒精相关的健康结果的政府计划应考虑到饮酒对高血压的显著不良影响。此外，建议俄罗斯解决酒精成瘾问题的政策干预措施应明确区分伏特加和啤酒饮用者。
