1 in 4 Russian men dies before age 55 mostly because of alcohol: Study

A fourth of Russian men die before the age of 55, a study shows, which points to vodka as a key contributor to the high death rate of Russian men under that age.

The figure, yielded by the study published in The Lancet medical journal, has been compared to seven percent of men in the United Kingdom and less than one percent in the United States.

The study notes that Russian men who down vodka have an “extraordinarily” high risk of an early death.

Researchers kept track of about 151,000 adult men in the Russian cities of Barnaul, Byisk, and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010. When about 8,000 later died, they followed up to monitor their causes of death.

Lead researcher Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University says the average Russian adult drinks 20 liters of vodka per year while the average Briton drinks about three liters of spirits annually.

“Russians clearly drink a lot, but it’s this pattern of getting really smashed on vodka and then continuing to drink that is dangerous,” Peto said.