The relevance of macroeconomic conditions on concurrent and subsequent alcohol use – results from two Northern Swedish cohorts

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study is to examine the relevance of macroeconomic conditions (boom vs. recession) and own labor market status on alcohol use in youth and midlife. Method: Two Northern Swedish cohorts, born in either 1965 (boom at age 21 years) or 1973 (recession at age 21 years), included all pupils attending the last grade of compulsory school in Luleå, in 1981 (n ¼ 990) or 1989 (n ¼ 686), respectively. Questionnaires were completed at ages 21 and 43/39 years. Alcohol use was measured as volume of consumption (cl/year) and heavy episodic drinking (HED). Results: Women aged 21 years during the boom (Cohort65) consumed less alcohol and were less likely to be heavy episodic drinkers at age 21 years compared to those who were exposed to recession at the same age (Cohort73). In men there were no such cohort differences. Women, and to some extent men, in Cohort65 increased their consumption at midlife, whereas this decreased for those in Cohort73. HED decreased in both cohorts, but the decrease was steeper in the recession cohort. Analyses stratified by labor market status revealed between-cohort differences in consumption among women who were either employed or students at baseline; but not for men. Alcohol use for those unemployed did not differ between the cohorts. Conclusions: In our study, comparing two cohorts that experienced either macroeconomic boom (1986) or recession (1994) at age 21 years in Sweden, the association between individual alcohol use and concurrent unemployment in youth was not affected by macroeconomic conditions.

How do labour market conditions explain the development of mental health over the life-course? A conceptual integration of the ecological model with life-course epidemiology in an integrative review of results from the Northern Swedish Cohort

“… 1.Macroeconomic recession impairs mental health among young people. Cross-sectional analyses Macro Alcohol use did not differ by trade among 21-year-old [ 32 ]. Macroeconomic conditions do not affect the use of alcohol among young people.…”

“…The long-term consequences of youth unemployment on adult alcohol consumption [ 32 ]. and mental health [ 33 ] (scarring) were insensitive to the trade cycle.…”

“…Several publications dealt with the negative impact of neighbourhood disadvantage on inhabitants’ mental health [ 20 , 32 , 35 – 41 ]. During the 1990s recession, the exo-level phenomena of high rates of unemployment in the neighbourhood were related to impaired mental health, independently of the individual’s own labour market status [ 35 ].…”

The concurrent development of psychological distress, heavy episodic drinking, and daily smoking from adolescence to midlife in two cohorts

“…The younger cohort was in their twenties and in the middle of the transition from school to work in the mid-1990s during the recession. A Swedish study revealed longitudinal differences between similar age cohorts in alcohol use but more so in total alcohol consumption than HED (68). A Finnish study that examined cohorts born between 1946 and 1977 found no cohort differences in alcohol use among men, whereas differences for women were found between every cohort; thus heavy drinking was more common for each new cohort than for the earlier cohorts, with the exception of the two youngest cohorts born after 1970, which resembled the younger cohort in this study (69).…”