Keywords
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to estimate the alcohol attributable fraction of gender difference in tuberculosis mortality in Russia using aggregate-level data of tuberculosis mortality and the level of alcohol consumption. Age-standardized sex-specific male and female tuberculosis mortality data for the period 1980-2015 and data on alcohol consumption were analyzed by means autoregression and integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that 61,3% of the difference in tuberculosis mortality rates between males and females in Russia could be attributed to alcohol. Conclusions: the outcomes of this study provide indirect support for the hypothesis that alcohol is a major contributor to the high gender gap in tuberculosis mortality and its dramatic fluctuations in Russia during the last few decades.