Diagnostic and age composition of excess mortality associated with the New Year holidays in Russia

Abstract

Statistics show that in many countries of the world holidays are associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality; this is especially pronounced during the New Year and Christmas period. This article presents an estimate of the excess number of deaths in Russia during the January holidays in 2011–2019 by main classes of causes of death and by age groups. The study relies on the Rosstat dataset of 16.83 million individual non-personalized death records referring to 2011–2019. The authors of the paper estimate excess mortality for each cause and age group as the difference between actually observed mortality and the LOWESS moving average calculated for non-holiday period, extrapolated to the holidays. The calculations showed that the period of excess mortality lasted from January 1 to January 22 with a maximum on January 1. Over 22 days, excess mortality in 2011–2019 amounted to 89.0 thousand cases or 8.4% in relation to mortality on non-holidays; excess mortality on January 1 amounted to 11.4 thousand cases. In contrast to mortality from diseases of the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems, the contribution of which to excess mortality was proportional to their prevalence on non-holidays, proportion of excess mortality from external causes almost doubled (23.6% versus 12.7 % on weekdays). January 1 saw the highest excess mortality from external causes, including that of alcohol poisoning, homicide, and suicide, in all age groups; on January 2 the highest increase was observed in mortality from diseases of the circulatory system; on January 9 and 10 — from the pathologies of the respiratory and digestive systems. January holidays in Russia are associated with significant excess mortality, primarily as a result of the abuse of strong alcoholic beverages. Informing the population about the fatal consequences of such a consumption regime and a decrease in the availability of strong alcohol, the maximum sales of which falls on December, can reduce the damage during the January holidays.