VDU 2017 m. birželio 21-23 d. vyks tarptautinis seminaras apie alkoholio vartojimo pasekmes Vidurio ir Rytų Europoje

International seminar

Persisting burden of alcohol in Central and Eastern Europe:

recent evidence and measurement issues

June 21-23, 2017

Artis Centrum Hotel, Totorių str. 23, Vilnius, Lithuania

Despite some recent progress in reducing alcohol-related mortality, excessive alcohol consumption in most of the Central and Eastern European countries remains among the major public health threats. Alcohol-related causes of death make a substantial contribution to the persisting East-West mortality gap and are largely responsible for excess mortality at working ages. In many cases, reliable and internationally comparable data about the alcohol-related harm and its determinants remains very scarce. These issues especially relevant for former USSR countries showing high levels of unrecorded alcohol consumption. This is despite recently introduced successful anti-alcohol policies and plans for further strengthening of these measures in some of these countries. Both magnitude of burden of alcohol and frequently changing policy context highlight the need for continuous monitoring of the situation using adequate data and methodological approaches.

This international seminar offers a forum in which conventional and advanced approaches to measurement of burden of alcohol can be discussed taking into account a specific context of the Central and Eastern European region. The seminar will focus on both the estimation of the population level burden of alcohol and newest individual-level evidence on determinants and consequences of harmful alcohol consumption. Although the main geographical focus is former communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, special sessions will be devoted to general methodological issues and wider international comparisons.

The organizers of the international seminar welcome researchers contributing with both methodological and empirical papers focusing on various aspects of the health and societal burden of alcohol, especially those of relevance to the East-West gap.

Seminar themes include:

A)     Measuring alcohol consumption and its impact on health in countries with high levels of unrecorded consumption

B)     Epidemiology of alcohol: new individual-level evidence

C)     Mortality and alcohol in Central and Eastern Europe

D)     Alcohol, violence and mental health

E)     Alcohol and cardiovascular system diseases

F)      Economic impact (including employment) of alcohol consumption

G)     Harm to others : the broader and indirect consequences of alcohol consumption

H)     Methodological issues in determining alcohol as a cause of death

I)       Geographic and socio-demographic disparities in alcohol-related harm between and within countries

J)       Communicating evidence on alcohol harms to policy makers and the public

Conference organizers

Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania)

National Cancer Institute (Lithuania)

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK)

Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany)

Population Europe Network

Conference format

The conference will run over three days. The program will feature a mix of keynote presentations and specific non-concurrent. Presentations will run for 20 minutes to be followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion.

A discussion forum on “Policy, politics, and alcohol control” involving policy makers and politicians will be organized on the last day of the event (23 June).

Seminar dates, venue and accommodation

The seminar will be held on 21-23 June 2017 at the Artis Centrum Hotel in Vilnius, Lithuania. There is no registration fee, but the participants are expected to cover their travelling and accommodation expenses.

International Organizing Committee

Prof. Dr. Domantas Jasilionis (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) and Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania))

Prof. David Leon (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK))

Dr. Vladimir M. Shkolnikov (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) and Higher School of Economics (Russian Federation)).

Contacts

Prof. Dr. Domantas Jasilionis

E-mail: jasilionis@demogr.mpg.de

Tel.: +370 694 49405