Alcohol Policy Changes and Trends in Adolescent Drinking in Finland from 1981 to 2011

To test if changes in national alcohol policy have had an impact on alcohol use among 12- to 18-year-old adolescents in Finland over a 30-year period. Frequencies of drinking any amounts of alcohol and drinking alcohol until really drunk from bi-annual repeated cross-sectional surveys from 1981 to 2...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford) 2013-09, Vol.48 (5), p.620-626
Main Authors: LINTONEN, Tomi, KARLSSON, Thomas, NEVALAINEN, Jaakko, KONU, Anne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Adolescents
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Alcohol
Alcohol consumption
Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology
Alcohol Drinking - legislation & jurisprudence
Alcohol Drinking - trends
Alcohol intoxication
Alcoholism
Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning
Associations
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Consumption
Cross-Sectional Studies
Drinking behavior
Drinking patterns
Female
Finland
Finland - epidemiology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Population
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public Policy - legislation & jurisprudence
Public Policy - trends
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Toxicology
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Summary:To test if changes in national alcohol policy have had an impact on alcohol use among 12- to 18-year-old adolescents in Finland over a 30-year period. Frequencies of drinking any amounts of alcohol and drinking alcohol until really drunk from bi-annual repeated cross-sectional surveys from 1981 to 2011 were examined against a national alcohol policy review using nationally representative samples of 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-year-old adolescents (n = 99,724) in Finland. Twelve-year-olds' alcohol drinking remained rare throughout the period. Drinking among 18-year-olds generally increased throughout the period. Significant increases until the late 1990s and decreases thereafter were observed in 14- and 16-year-olds' drinking patterns. A sharp increase was predicted between 2003 and 2005 as a result of EU-related processes, but instead decrease was observed among 14-16-year-olds. The tests of hypothesized decrease from 2005 to 2011 due to tightening alcohol policy including several tax raises produced mixed results. Alcohol policy changes between 1981 and 2011 seem not to have had noticeable influence on alcohol drinking or drunkenness among the under-aged in Finland. Conspicuous increases seen in population total consumption in association with EU-related developments have not materialized among adolescents.
ISSN:0735-0414
1464-3502
DOI:10.1093/alcalc/agt048