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Norwegian women drink more

jantore — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:15:56 +0000

Norwegian womens level of drinking is soon equal with men, shows a new report from the The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research. Young adult women in Oslo, the capital, drinks the most. Even though men still drink more than women, the difference has decreased. The percentage that are abstainers are stable, but those who drink are doing it more often and more.

Mimicking men
- Women are “mimicking” men. Since the male drinking pattern are more accepted in society, women takes after mens drinking habits, and not the other way around, says professor Edle Ravndal at SERAF (Center for drugs- and dependencies reseach to the Norwegian daily Dagbladet. In the book “Women and alcohol”, where Ravndal are co-author it says that women often attach there use of alcohol to male drinking-patterns, and that women therefore might have indirect use of prevention activities targeted med.

Young adult in Oslo drink most
Single women with higher education and high income drink most, and woman living in the Oslo-region drink more than in all other regions. Woman drink the most when they are between 20 and 30 years old. This is a phase of life which are marked by few familiy-obligations together with economic independence. That woman, and not just men, increasingly are living through such an economic independent and “child-free” young adult-phase, might also have an independent effect on the increase of womans alcohol use. That the drinking pattern between men and woman are more similar than earlier can in others words be explained be the fact that woman and mens life patterns are more similar in 2004, than in 1973.

Young adult womans consumption decreases and changes with age, probably because of increased care-obligations. This reduction are weaker though among woman in the Oslo-area than in other regions. Wedøy and Skretting are pointing out in the report that higher alcohol consumption among woman in an fertile age is a risk for fetal damage.

More alcohol-related injuries
The youngest in the report, which were 15-20 years old when they were interviews, showed an increased tendency to end up in fights. Other than that woman create less damage on “third-persons” when they are drinking, like fights or drunk driving, than men. The number of alcoholrelated injuries where woman are treaded has increased last 10 years. But both when it comes to how much and type of injuries there is less knowledge about the consequences of alcohol for woman health than for men. Regardless of this the autors are warning that the increase in consumption might have negative consequences for woman health in the future.

Minimum alcohol pricing would save thousends of lives

jantore — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:31:34 +0000

The discussion about minimum alcohol pricing in Britain goes on. Prime minister Gordon Brown has earlier said that this was out of the quesion since it after his opinon would «punish the majority of responsible drinkers». But several researcher now says that a measure like this would be effective in curbing alcohol consumption in Britain. A moderate drinker would not be very affected by a minimum price. Researchers at Sheffield University says that a 50p per unit minimum would add just £12 a year to the drinks bill of the moderate drinker however someone drinking at harmful levels would be forced to pay £163 a year more.

More on this in the artice from The Telegraph.

Youth Health Initiative

jantore — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:14:46 +0000

The European Commission has started up a project trying to reach young people, and encourage them to be active partners in promoting their health.

The chief aim of the project is
* To prioritise the health of children and young people in Europe.
* To highlight important health-related youth issues that the Commission is working on, including healthy life-styles, education, workplace, media and healthy environments.

A website has been set up here.

A 2-day conference will be held in Brussels in cooperationm with the European Youth Forum on 9 july. Around 400 people are expected to attend. The project also consist of a competition where youth between 15 and 25 years old are challenged to share their views about health issues in the form of a drawing, poster, photograph or video expressing their ideas.

Many employees at pubs have drinking problems

jantore — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:05:40 +0000

A study where 200 employees at pubs and nightclubs in Stockholm has showed that half of those between 20 and 25 years have so big drinking problems that they could have need for treatment. The average in the whole population is three precent. 74% of men and 84 percent of women was categorized «risky alcohol habits», 33 percent of men and 40 percent of women could also placed in the group «problmatic alcohol habits» and 14 % of men and 16 % of women was seen to have «very problematic alcohol habits».

Håkan Leifman, at STAD who works with prevention, says that this serious especially because the workers are relatively oung. If they continue to drink like this the risk is big that the will end up as alcoholics, he says to the paper Dagens Nyheter.

Heavy episodic drinking up among european youth

jantore — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:04:16 +0000

ESPAD – the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs – released their report for 2007 on march 26th. Data is collected on substance use among 15-16 ear old european in 35 countries. This is the fourth report of it`s kind.

Among the findings are that 82% of the students have drunk alcohol last 12 months, 61 last 30 days, which are more or less the same as in previous studies. Heavy episodic drinking have increased though from 35% in 2003, to 42% in 2007. During the last 15 year heavy drinking has increased with 15%. The gap between boys and girls in drunking habits also seems to diminish, which is verified also by other surveys. In Norway actually more girls and boys told about heavy episodic drinking last year. This development can eplain most of the increase last years.
Drinking habits varies between countries with for instance the nordic countries consumating more alcohol when they drink, even though fewer say that they have drunken last year.

Among students who had tried illicit drugs, most had tried cannabis. Lifetime cannabis use was reported by 19% of the students while 7% had tried one or more of the other drugs. More boys than girls had used cnnabis. The reports concludes that the overall impression is that the increase in illicit drug use between 1995 and 2003 has come to a halt, if not a decrease in the report for 2007.

Nine key variables were selected to give an overview of the 2007 results per country regarding consumption of sigarettes, alcohol and illicit drugs and heavy drinking. the countries that scored aove or around averae for most of the nine measures was Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Isle of Man, the Slovak Republic and United Kingdom. Countries mosty around or below average are Armenia, Cypros, Greece, Iceland, Portugal and Romania.

When it comes to sigarettes the trend is that students smoke less, or that the situation is stabil.

The report concludes in the end that the overall impression of the long-term changes in substance use among the ESPAD students, bas on countries with such data, is one of an improved situation, apart from the heavy episodic drinking measure which display an increase.

The whole report and a summary can be read here.

Scottish licensing bil delayed

jantore — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:35:46 +0000

While Gordon Brown has spoked against a minimum prize on alcohol, the SNP government in Scotland has included it in their plans for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland. Originally it was ment to be brought forward as part of a combined Criminal jsutice and Licensing Bill. But after coming under pressure from opposition the minority government has decided to separate the two. This means that the changes probably will be delayed.

Besides a minmum prize, the SND government also propose to ban discount deals on alcohol and restrict the display and marketing of drink to specific areas within off-sales premises.

The scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon says to BBC that «Scotland’s alcohol misuse problem is estimated to cost our country at least £2.25bn per year in extra services and lost productivity, and professionals are agreed the threat posed to our national health from current levels of consumption is very great.»

Alcohol consumption down in Ireland

jantore — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:12:01 +0000

The financial downturn also has its effect on drinking. Latest example of that comes from Ireland, where consumption droped 6 % in 2008. In 2007 the consumption increased by 2,5%. This means that the consumption is down to 1997-levles. Together with toughter economical times, increased cross-border shopping in the neighbouring territory of Northerns Ireland has contributed to the drop.

The irish government releases its budget next week, and the alcohol industry uses the latest sale figures to lobby for not increasing taxes. Government is expected to raise taxes in the budget.

Proposal for earlier closing hours in sweden

jantore — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:08:31 +0000

The group that has gome through the swedish alcohol law, has send their recommendation to the swedish government. Most of the report focuses on licencing for selling alcohol in pubs and nightclubs. The group proposes that all muncipaliticies should have guidelines for how this should be regulated. Besides these they propose minor liberalisations, but that alcohol should not be served after 03.00 anywhere. Today the limit is 05.00, and several restaurants in the three major cities are open until then.

Leader of IOGT-NTO, Sven Olov Carlsson is pleased with the proposal to set a limit at 03.00. «This is one step on the road towards less alcoholrelated violence», he says in a press realease. There is a clear connection between late opening hours and street violence. In Sweden 8 out of 10 offenders are intoxicated. Especially outside restaurants and pubs violence happens. Carlsson says that IOGT-NTO don`t think people shouldn`t go out and have a good time, but that they shouldn`t feel unsafe doing it. IOGT-NTO is concerned about other recommendations the group makes though, and fear that relaxing some of the rules about the place that is serving alcohol can lead to new types of restaurants now will apply for licence. This could mean an increase in the number of places selling alcohol.

Also the police has asked for earlier closing hours.