Relationship between characteristics of large national regions and individual alcohol consumption: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of our article was to systematise studies that investigated the impact of living conditions in large national regions on individual alcohol consumption. METHODS: The objectives of the scoping review, the criteria and methods for selecting articles were defined in advance and recorded in the protocol PROSPERO CRD42021234874. We sought publications on the research topic in PubMed, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, Crossref and eLibrary databases from the moment they were created until December 31, 2021. The final sample included 81 publications. RESULTS: The majority of ultimately selected papers were published after 2010 (62 articles), represented the USA (68 articles), and considered samples of children and youths, either the younger population or the general adult population (65 articles). High quality was characteristic for 19 studies, whereas satisfactory quality was exhibited by 46 publications. The most consistent associations with individual alcohol consumption were revealed for the legislative environment (especially for integral scales and indices), alcohol pricing policy, the prevalence of alcohol consumption and binge drinking in the population, and unemployment rate. CONCLUSION: The review made it possible to systematise the results of studies on the impact of the characteristics of large national regions on alcohol consumption, including a description of these characteristics and results, samples and designs of studies, their quality, as well as to summarise the results of these studies.

The prevalence of familial hypercholesterolemia in the West Siberian region of the Russian Federation: A substudy of the ESSE-RF.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) in Russia has not previously been evaluated. The aim of our study was to investigate the prevalence of FH in the population of the West Siberian region of Russia, and then estimate the frequency of coronary artery disease (CAD) and treatment with cholesterol-lowering medication in FH patients. METHODS: The sample of our study consisted of participants from the population-based cohort of The Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Diseases in Regions of the Russian Federation Study (ESSE-RF), conducted in the Tyumen and Kemerovo regions (1,630 and 1,622 people, respectively, aged 25-64). All participants who had LDL-cholesterol higher than 4.9 mmol/l and who had LDL-cholesterol less than or equal to 4.9 mmol/l but had statin therapy were examined and interviewed by experts in FH. RESULTS: The prevalence of patients with definite FH was 0.24% (one in 407) (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.06%-0.42%), with probable FH was 0.68% (one in 148) (95% CI: 0.38%-0.98%), and with definite or probable FH combined was 0.92% (one in 108) (95% CI: 0.58%-1.26%). 40% (95% CI: 20.8%-59.2%) of patients with definite or probable FH had CAD. However, only 23% (95% CI: 6.3%-39.7%) of patients with definite or probable FH were on statins. The odds ratios for CAD and myocardial infarction (MI), adjusted for age, gender, region, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, were 3.71 (95% CI: 1.58-8.72) (p = 0.003) and 4.06 (95% CI: 0.89-18.55) (р = 0.070) respectively for individuals with definite or probable FH relative to those who were unlikely to have FH. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of FH in Russia may be significantly higher than previously estimated. There is underdiagnosis and undertreatment of FH in Russia.