Change and continuity in Finnish drinking in the 21st century

Abstract

Aim: Alcohol consumption and policy in Finland have undergone a variety of changes in the two last decades. In several cases, trends in both consumption and policy have shifted direction when moving from the first decade of the 21st century to the second one. The aim of the overview is to summarise the trends. Data: The overview draws on results primarily from the cross-sectional Finnish Drinking Habits Survey (FDHS) in 2000, 2008 and 2016, and also from the whole series including altogether seven separate data collections carried out every eight years from 1968 to 2016 and mainly covering Finns aged 15–69 years. Response rates show a falling trend (78% in 2000, 74% in 2008 and 60% in 2016). The overview also makes use of data collected within the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) and, for the elderly, the National FinSote study carried out by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). Results: After an all-time high of 12.7 litres of pure alcohol per capita 15 years and over in 2007, total consumption of alcohol had decreased by 21% by the year 2019. Underage drinking has decreased ever since the millennium shift. Older people’s drinking has continued increasing or levelled out. Along with reduced total consumption, heavy episodic drinking (HED) has also decreased, but the differences between manual and white-collar workers in HED have continued to grow. Drinking alcoholic beverages with meals has also declined since 2008. Liberal and restrictive alcohol policy measures have alternated. Conclusions: Finnish drinking culture seems to change at a slow pace; several typical drinking habits have remained unchanged.

Alcoholic beverage preferences among teenagers in Finland before and after the 2018 alcohol law change

“…Beer seems to be a masculine beverage choice, at least in Finland, both among adults (Tigerstedt et al, 2018) and adolescents judging from the results presented in this analysis. The favourites among girls were alcopops and cider.…”

“…In the Nordic context, Finland and Norway are beer territory, while wine is the most popular beverage in Denmark and Sweden (Tigerstedt et al, 2018; National Institute for Health and Welfare, 2018). Finland has been characterised by high consumption of spirits, but the consumption of strong beverages has decreased in popularity both among the adult (National Institute for Health and Welfare, 2018) and under-aged adolescent population.…”

“…The preferred beverage in Finland has traditionally been medium-strength beer, which has accounted for almost half of the total consumption (Tigerstedt, Karlsson, & Härkönen, 2018). This changed towards stronger beer after the law took effect: strong beer accounted for 4.0% of ethanol imbibed in the form of beer in 2017 but 12.3% in 2018 (Valvira National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, 2019).…”

High-Risk Periods for Adult Traumatic Brain Injuries: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

“…In Finnish culture, alcohol consumption increases on weekends and public holidays, while it is not as common on weekdays. Alcohol is consumed on weekends and in larger quantities per occasion in Finland in contrast to southern European countries [22, 23]. Consequently, there is a clear peak in intoxication-related deaths on public holidays and weekends in all age-groups in Finland.…”

Mental health work cannot be postponed

“…This issue revolves a great deal around alcohol drinking, studied from many perspectives and by different methodologies. In an overview report, 21st century Finnish alcohol drinking trends are accounted for, showing that the culture changes at a slow pace (Tigerstedt et al, 2020). A survey-based analysis of drinking among older adults in four European countries by Rossow and Træen (2020) also underscores the continuous relevance of notions such as drinking culture and patterns: even if a strong regularity in the distribution of alcohol consumption was observed in the samples, gender was the only common factor associated with drinking behaviour across the four countries.…”