Travelers’ import to Sweden during the beginning of the 21st century : Do those who privately import alcohol drink more or have different patterns of drinking than those who do not?

• Privately imported alcohol has increased during the last decade in Sweden. Estimates suggest an increase from 1.1 liter (pure alcohol) per inhabitant in 1996 to 2.7 liters in 2004, and a decrease to 1.8 liters in 2007. The Privately imported alcohol represented approximately 20 % of total consumption in Sweden during the period 2001-2007 and thus represents a large amount of all alcohol consumed. However, the drinking habits of importers have been little studied.The main aim of this paper is to examine drinking patterns and experiences of alcohol related problems among Swedes who bring in alcohol from abroad and to investigate whether these aspects differs according to levels of import. In addition those who bring in alcohol are compared with those who do not bring in alcohol from abroad.Data on private import of alcohol, alcohol consumption and patterns of consumption were obtained from monthly surveys, from January 2002 until December 2007 (i.e., approx. 90,000 individuals). Logistic regressions is conducted in order to estimate the association between drinking habits (and problems) and different amounts of alcohol imports.The findings of this study indicate that those who import alcohol drink more and binge drink to a larger extent than those who do not. However, adverse consequences of alcohol were not reported to the same degree as among the non importers. Furthermore, the results suggest that the larger amount of imported alcohol the more alcohol is consumed and higher frequency of binge drinking.

Publikations- och innehållstyp

pop (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)