Alcohol-related male mortality in the context of changing alcohol control policy in Lithuania 2000-2017.

Introduction and Aims: Over the recent decades, Lithuania has reported very high alcohol-related harm and mortality indicators when compared to other countries. This, among other reasons, led to an adoption of comprehensive evidence-based alcohol control policy measures back in 2007 and 2016. The aim of this study is to examine alcohol-related male mortality in the context of changing alcohol control policies over the period 2000-2017.
Design and Methods: The life table decomposition method was applied to estimate to what extent the age groups and causes of death are responsible for changes in male life expectancy in the period 2000-2017. Furthermore, a time series intervention model was used to study the impact of alcohol control measures on alcohol-related mortality. A seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model was fitted.
Results: Male life expectancy increased by 6.23 years in the period 2007-2017, mainly due to a decrease in mortality from external causes of death (2.12 years), cardiovascular diseases (1.84 years) and alcohol-related disorders (0.86 years). Reduced male mortality in the 30-64 years age group also contributed to a large increase in male life expectancy during the same period.
Discussion and Conclusions: The greatest positive effect of reduced alcohol-related mortality to male life expectancy was observed during the period 2007-2009. It overlaps with the start of implementation of the comprehensive alcohol control measures. However, further research on the impact of different alcohol policy interventions on various outcomes is needed.
(© 2020 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)