scholarly journals The Finnish Drinking Habits Survey: Implications for alcohol policy and prevention

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 619-631
Author(s):  
Katariina Warpenius ◽  
Pia Mäkelä
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Alcohol Prevention ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Alcohol Related Harm ◽  
Related Harm

Aims/materials: This reflection piece reviews some of the key results and conclusions from the book Näin Suomi juo ( This is how Finns drink, 2018), based on the Finnish Drinking Habits Survey. Our aim was to go through the results taking the perspective of prevention workers and policymakers: how could they benefit from the scientific findings when tackling alcohol-related harm? Results/reflections: The reflections displayed in this article provide some useful arguments and justifications for population-level alcohol policy in the controversial alcohol policy debate. Harms do not only arise among the heaviest drinkers, and efficient methods to prevent harm may be found among the prevention efforts that apply to populations rather than only to the heaviest drinkers. The article also illustrates how the results from a population survey can be used in order to identify specific challenges and solutions for alcohol prevention in a given population. The results help in identifying the population groups and situations with an elevated risk of alcohol-related harm and in characterising the drinking patterns and social situations in which drinking takes place in these vulnerable parts of the population. Conclusions: The review illustrates that a many-sided understanding of alcohol consumption and the related harm, based on survey results, is more far-reaching in terms of prevention and policy than a knowledge base built solely on register data on the development of alcohol consumption and harm. For example, the respondents’ drinking patterns are linked not only to their attitudes and risk perceptions but also to what people consider to be appropriate means to reduce alcohol use and the related harm in terms of alcohol policy, informal social control and people’s life management.

scholarly journals Alcohol Drinking Patterns and Differences in Alcohol-Related Harm: A Population-Based Study of the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Antai ◽  
G. B. Lopez ◽  
J. Antai ◽  
D. S. Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Alcohol Drinking ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alcohol Prevention ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Full Sample ◽  
Alcohol Drinking Patterns ◽  
Alcohol Related Harm ◽  
Related Harm

Alcohol use and associated alcohol-related harm (ARH) are a prevalent and important public health problem, with alcohol representing about 4% of the global burden of disease. A discussion of ARH secondary to alcohol consumption necessitates a consideration of the amount of alcohol consumed and the drinking pattern. This study examined the association between alcohol drinking patterns and self-reported ARH. Pearson chi-square testχ2and logistic regression analyses were used on data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). The NCS-R is a cross-sectional nationally representative sample. Data was obtained by face-to-face interviews from 9282 adults aged ≥18 years in the full sample, and 5,692 respondents in a subsample of the full sample. Results presented as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Alcohol drinking patterns (frequency of drinking, and drinks per occasion) were associated with increased risks of self-reported ARH; binge or “risky” drinking was strongly predictive of ARH than other categories of drinks per occasion or frequency of drinking; and men had significantly higher likelihood of ARH in relation to frequency of drinking and drinks per occasion. Findings provide evidence for public health practitioners to target alcohol prevention strategies at the entire population of drinkers.

scholarly journals Nordic, Italian, and German Drinking Habits: A Comparison between Surveys Made since the 1980s

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 14-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sari Hanhinen
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Central European ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Drinking Frequency

This article compares Nordic drinking habit surveys and their results — a comparison previously done in 1988. It includes all the main surveys regarding drinking habits of the adult population in the Nordic countries since 1988. In addition the analysis takes in Italy and Germany. Drinking habits are described and compared on four dimensions: the share of abstainers and drinkers, overall drinking frequency, the volume of alcohol consumption, and heavy drinking and drinking for intoxication. The study highlights the difficulties inherent in the international comparison of drinking habits. The results indicate that even though the changes in beverage preferences imply a homogenization of drinking patterns, the homogenization hypothesis proves to be wrong when comparing the results concerning the shares of abstainers, drinking frequencies or distribution of alcohol consumption between women and men. Denmark still differs from the rest of the Nordic countries in these respects, being closer to central European countries like Germany. In the other Nordic countries traditional drinking patterns seem to persist despite the changes in beverage preferences. Closest to Denmark and central European countries stands Finland, where drinking frequency has been rising and where more alcohol is consumed than in Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Looking at the previous comparison of Nordic drinking habits, it can be concluded that drinking habits are very open to changes.

Friends drinking together: young adults’ evolving support practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Dresler ◽  
Margaret Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Friendship Group ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Support Practices ◽  
Alcohol Related Harm ◽  
Related Harm

Purpose Young adult’s drinking is about pleasure, a communal practice of socialising together in a friendship group. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolving support practices of drinking groups for better targeting of health communications messages. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative descriptive study examined the narratives of 28 young people’s (age 18-24 years old) experience of a “night out” framed as the Alcohol Consumption Journey. Findings The Alcohol Consumption Journey ritual consisted of three phases: preloading, going out and recovery. The participants described multiple forms of support practices located at each phase of the Alcohol Consumption Journey for maximising pleasure, minimising risk, encouraging supportive behaviours, enhancing group cohesion and protecting the drinkers from alcohol-related harm. Hence, support practices played a critical part in constituting and consolidating the drinking group. While the support practices appeared to be structured into the Alcohol Consumption Journey, they were activated differently for young men and young women. Support practices were an important driver in perpetuating the Alcohol Consumption Journey. Originality/value The paper extends Vander Ven’s concept of “drunk support” to better understand young adults’ evolving support practices in the ritualised Alcohol Consumption Journey.

scholarly journals In fear of a reversal back to the spirits-drinking era — the 2004 decrease of Finnish alcohol taxes in public discourse

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matilda Hellman ◽  
Thomas Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
Total Consumption

Aims The study investigates how the dissimilar tax reductions for different alcoholic beverages (spirits, wine and beer) were debated during the large tax decrease on alcoholic beverages in Finland in 2004. Design and Data The material comprises parliamentary proceedings and discussions, as well as daily press items (=105) from 2003–2004. Content analyses, both quantitative and qualitative, were performed. Results The parliament's discussion on the unequal treatment of different beverage types concerned mostly the overall framing of a public health perspective, differencing between consumption of “spirits” and “non-spirits”. The mass media framed the question mostly from the industry's point of view. Neither a clear support of the total consumption model (excluding specification of beverage sort), nor a strong liberalisation model for alcohol policy were expressed in the materials. Varying stances were merely motivated within a paradigm of “changing drinking patterns”. Conclusions The differing treatment of different beverage types, especially the large reductions in spirits taxes, was crystallised as the fundamental public health concern surrounding the decision to lower alcohol taxes. In the end of the article the authors ask whether the lack of clear stances other than the drinking pattern framing could imply that the Finnish alcohol policy debate has become more heterogeneous, neutralised or resigned in its basic nature.

scholarly journals Low-Alcohol Wine: A Narrative Review on Consumer Perception and Behaviour

Beverages ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Bucher ◽  
Kristine Deroover ◽  
Creina Stockley
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Consumer Perception ◽  
Alcohol Content ◽  
Wine Consumption ◽  
Reduce Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Alcohol Related Harm ◽  
Low Alcohol ◽  
Related Harm

Low- and reduced-alcohol beverages become increasingly popular in many countries with different factors driving a change in the beverage market. The aim of the current narrative review is (a) to provide an introduction on low-alcohol wine, and (b) to provide an overview of the literature on research that investigated perception and behaviour related to low-alcohol wine consumption. Wines with reduced alcohol content can be an interesting product for a variety of stakeholders and may offer benefits for consumers while having the potential to reduce alcohol consumption and therefore contribute to the reduction of alcohol-related harm. Additional research and marketing efforts are needed to further increase awareness of the availability and quality of these products.

The finnish drinking habits during the 1990s

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-166
Author(s):  
Leena Metso ◽  
Jussi Simpura
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Binge Drinking ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Economic Depression ◽  
Drinking Frequency ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Administrative Structures

Three nationwide surveys from the years 1992, 1993, and 1996 were used to study whether basic features of Finnish drinking habits changed in the 1990s. Two factors that might have produced changes are the deep economic depression since 1991 and Finland's EU membership since 1995. The effects of the depression were visible in a decline in overall alcohol consumption after 1991, which recovered to the earlier level by 1996. The effects of EU membership involved, among many other things, certain administrative structures of the Finnish alcohol monopoly system. However, basic features of drinking patterns, like abstinence, drinking frequency, frequency of binge drinking, and the distribution of alcohol consumption, have remained untouched by those external changes. This can be taken as further evidence that drinking patterns typically change very slowly.

scholarly journals Risk, pleasure and information – notes concerning the discursive space of prevention

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 337-346
Author(s):  
Anders Bergmark
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Risk Information ◽  
Moral Discourse ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Alcohol Prevention ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Motivational Structure

In this paper the notions of risk, pleasure and information are discussed with reference both to their utilization within the prevention discourse and to their relation to a process of de-traditionalization. It is suggested that the current lack of options for moral discourse directed towards the individual's freedom of choice, restricts the vocabulary of prevention to deal only with the harm produced by alcohol consumption. Prevention discourses can-not address the motivational structure connected to the individual's pursuit for pleasure and self-fulfilling experiences. This constraint can be seen as a contributing factor to the centrality of risk in alcohol prevention discourses. Although risk-information is produced within the scientific community by a logic of its own, it is also related to the individuals expanding menu of choices that follows with subject-centered individualism with little or no room for moral discourse concerning the individual's construction of lifestyle and identity. When morality is no longer present, only risk can fill its traditional role, that of being a reason for renouncing. It is not by chance that the most important actors on the alcohol policy scene in traditional temperance societies now are professionals and bureaucrats and not voluntary temperance organizations and that the latter have increasingly adopted their arguments from the former.

scholarly journals The Use of Visuals in Issue Framing: Signifying Responsible Drinking

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 665-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lærke Højgaard Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Issue Framing ◽  
Organizational Framing ◽  
Visual Framing ◽  
Alcohol Related Harm ◽  
Related Harm

This article offers new insights into the organizational framing of social issues by drawing attention to the use of visual framing. These insights are based on a case study of the organization, Drinkaware, and its visual framing of the issue of alcohol-related harm in its campaign material. The study identifies three overall visual framing functions performed by Drinkaware’s campaign material: normalizing alcohol consumption, defining and delimiting the scope of the issue and the responsible parties, and establishing the organization’s identity as an expert. The article contributes to institutional theory, and to organizational theory more broadly by elaborating on the significant role of visuals in the framing of an issue, particularly by providing a systematic elaboration of the visual framing functions and components. The article also extends the literature on issues and issue fields, by showing how visuals contribute to defining and delimiting issues and establishing an expert identity in an issue field.

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