§ Sir Alastair GoodladTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assistance her Department is giving to research into the causes of mortality in Russia; and if she will make a statement. [31753]
§ Clare ShortThe Department for International Development (DFID) has funded a collaborative research project involving the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Russian Federation Academy of Sciences Centre for Demography and Human Ecology. The project, which ran from June 1996 to October 1997, investigated the rapid increase in mortality in Russia between 1990 and 1994. Male life expectancy at birth fell in this period by 6.2 years to 57.6.
The project has provided useful findings regarding the influence of alcohol on mortality. There is emerging evidence that binge drinking in the Russian tradition has specific effects on the heart and may be causing the very large number of cardiovascular deaths among men of working age. A Lancet article, outlining the project's findings in August 1997, attracted considerable interest and comment and is to be summarised in the 1998 WHO World Health Report.
443WThe results of the research project have been widely disseminated in Russia. A conference was organised in Moscow in the autumn of 1997, which involved senior health policy and decision makers from federal and regional bodies. The conference, which took note of the social and economic stress that people in Russia are under, identified alcohol as a key priority for Ministry of Health action.
Following on from this work, DFID has recently approved funding for a 2 year collaborative study to examine the determinants of mortality in the Former Soviet Union.