Use of electronic health records to study health effects of alcohol in Arkhangelsk, Russia

Russia has one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption worldwide, and excessive alcohol-related morbidity and mortality are substantial public health concerns. Further investigations of the health effect of alcohol by use of rapidly evolving electronic health records (EHRs) can generate new evidence for planning countermeasures. The advantage is that EHRs contain large volumes of routinely collected medical data for large populations. On the other hand, EHR-based studies have limitations, such as data incompleteness and quality deficiencies. The PhD project investigates the health effects of alcohol in the Arkhangelsk population through a cohort study using data from the Know Your Heart (KYH) cross-sectional study (Arkhangelsk, 2015-2017) and its EHR-based follow-up. A particular emphasis is on methodological aspects of the EHR-based population studies in Russia, where such studies are a novelty.