Citation

Lintonen T, Karlsson T, Nevalainen J, Konu A. Alcohol Alcohol. 2013; 48(5): 620-626.

Affiliation

The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, P.O. Box 30, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/alcalc/agt048

PMID

23735228

Abstract

AIMS: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: 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.

Language: en