Who drinks more in Sweden? A study on consumption trends among men and women and in various age groups during 1990–2002

Abstract

This study examines trends in alcohol consumption in Sweden from 1990 to 2002, with the emphasis on the period after 1995 with Sweden as a member of the European Union (EU). The specific aim of the study is to study gender-specific and age-specific trends in self-reported consumption by means of five general population surveys conducted between 1990 and 2002. Trends in the proportion of high consumers were also studied. Alcohol sales and estimates of unrecorded consumption indicate that Swedish per capita alcohol consumption (per person aged 15 or older) rose by approximately 27 per cent, from 7.8 litres of pure alcohol in 1990 to 9.9 litres in 2002. Approximately 90 per cent of this increase has occurred since 1996. Analyses of self-reported consumption from survey data confirm this trend with more than a 30 per cent increase for both genders (aged 16–75 years) since 1996. Among women, this is mainly due to increased wine consumption, and among men to augmented consumption of wine as well as beer. Furthermore, the proportion of high consumers has increased – and more so than the per capita consumption. The study also shows that changes in consumption during the period of 1990 to 2002 differ for the various gender-and age-specific groups. Among women, for in-stance, the increase since 1996 has been strongest for the oldest women (50–75 years of age), and since 1998 statistically significant only among this group. The weakest, and thus not statistically significant, increase has occurred among women between the ages of 30 and 49. It is important to track the changes not only among men and women and various age groups, but also in the different sub-groups of the population, since changes in per capita consumption are strongly related to changes in different alcohol-related problems. Other groups of importance are e.g. various social classes (including the long-term unemployed and people on long-term disability benefits), regions, family units and, not least, different drinking groups, including high consumers. Improved knowledge of how consumption changes in different socio-demo-graphic groups will also improve our understanding of the causes and mechanisms behind changes in alcohol consumption in society.