Wednesday 28th April at the RSS, 12 Errol St. London EC1Y 8LX. Tea at 1630
for 1700 meeting.
Vladimir Shkolnikov, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Russian mortality: trends, patterns and social
dimensions.
The paper presents evidence from analysis of changes in Russian mortality
categorised according to gender, age, cause of death, geographic region, and
to socio-demographic characteristics. The analysis suggest that the
dramatic mortality upsurge in the 1990s cannot be mainly attributed to such
factors as absolute deprivation, collapse of the health system or
environmental pollution. Psychological stress caused by the shock of an
abrupt and painful economic transition is likely to have played a major role
- supplemented by the adverse health effects of excessive alcohol
consumption.
Comparatively low mortality among people with high education and among women
suggests that some sectors of population are doing substantially better
under the same macroscopic conditions - probably indicating the important
role of behavioral factors.
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COMMENT BY RAY THOMAS
The subject matter of this talk may not be as remote as it seems.
Capitalism in Russia broke out in ways which have many parallels with the
outbreak of Thatcherism in Britain. The problems in Russia can be
interpreted as gross magnification of the health and social problems we have
here.
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