The objective of this study was to explore religious beliefs of Somali men residing in Finland that may influence their use of condoms and their perceptions of contraceptive use by women of their community. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to study 98 refugee Somali married men aged 30-65 years. Participants filled in self-administered questionnaires (in English or in Somali) but were also interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured, featuring thematically clustered open-ended questions; they were conducted in Somali or in English. Participants had arrived in Finland between 1990-1998. They had from 2-12 children. For religious reasons, 63% of the men avoided using condoms and were opposed to women's contraceptive use. The remaining 37% were not deterred by religious beliefs from using condoms and from approving women's contraceptive practices. In conclusion, for religious reasons, most Somali men assessed avoided using condoms and disapproved of the use of contraception by women.

We investigated the association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer because previous studies have yielded conflicting results. As part of the Findrink study, data from the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease (KIHD) Risk Factor Study were analysed. The KIHD study is a cohort of 2,682 men from Eastern Finland with no history of cancer at baseline. The men were grouped into five groups according to their weekly alcohol intake in grams. Association between alcohol and colorectal cancer was examined using Cox proportional hazard models. There were 59 cases of colorectal cancer during an average follow up of 16.7 years. Men within the highest quintile of alcohol consumption had a median weekly alcohol intake of 198.8 g. Age and examination year adjusted risk ratio of colorectal cancer among men within the highest quintile of alcohol consumption was 4.4 (95% CI: 1.6-11.9, P-value = 0.004). After adjusting for potential confounders, such as vegetable consumption, fibre intake, smoking, family history of cancer, socio-economic status, leisure time physical activity, men with the highest amount of alcohol consumption still had a 3.5-fold (95% CI: 1.2-9.9, P-value = 0.021) increased risk of colorectal cancer. Exclusion of men diagnosed with colorectal cancer during the first 2 years of follow up from the analyses did not alter the risk increase. In conclusion, this study gives further evidence of a positive association between alcohol consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer.