Drinking patterns among Finns aged 60 years and over from the 1990s onwards.

Aim: To analyse prevalence and trends in older people's (60+) alcohol use in Finland in 1993-2018.

Data And Method: Data on people aged 65+ were obtained from the Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Elderly study (HBHFE) for the years 1993-2011 and from its successor the National FinSote Survey for the years 2013-2018. Data for 60-64-year-olds and for the reference group (20-59-year-olds) were obtained from the Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Adult Population (HBHFA) study for the years 1993-2011 and from the FinSote study for the years 2013-2018.

Comparing older people's drinking habits in four Nordic countries: Summary of the thematic issue.

Aim: The present article summarises status and trends in the 21st century in older people's (60-79 years) drinking behaviour in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and concludes this thematic issue. Each country provided a detailed report analysing four indicators of alcohol use: the prevalence of alcohol consumers, the prevalence of frequent use, typical amounts of use, and the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking (HED). The specific aim of this article is to compare the results of the country reports.

Similar countries, similar factors? Studying the decline of heavy episodic drinking in adolescents in Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Aim: To (i) examine several factors associated with trends in heavy episodic drinking (HED) in Finland, Norway and Sweden, (ii) investigate similarities in these associations across the countries and (iii) analyse the contribution of these factors to the trend in HED and the differences across the countries.

Design And Setting: Observational study using five waves of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) from Finland, Norway and Sweden between 1999 and 2015.

Participants: A total of 18 128 male and 19 121 female 15- to 16-year-old students.

The Road to the Alcohol Act 2018 in Finland: A conflict between public health objectives and neoliberal goals.

Finnish alcohol policy has aimed for decades years to mitigate alcohol-related harm by using high taxation and restrictions on the physical availability of alcohol. The state monopoly on the retail of alcohol has played a central role in reducing the availability of alcohol. In 2011, preparations began for a comprehensive reform of the Alcohol Act 1994.

Combining Alcohol with Benzodiazepines or Psychostimulants. Metaphoric Meanings and the Concept of Control in the Online Talk of Polydrug Use.

The co-administration of different substances is a widespread practice in the context of hard drug use. Among others, alcohol combined with certain substances produces potentially dangerous interactions. This article explores how people who combine alcohol with benzodiazepines or psychostimulants perceive these practices and how they share their perceptions in Finnish and Swedish online discussions.

Frightening or Foolish? Gendered Perceptions of Public Intoxication Among Youths and Adults in Norway and Finland.

: What people define as acceptable alcohol use may differ between social situations and depend upon on who is drinking as well as who is evaluating the situation. : The aim of the study was to explore how Norwegian and Finnish youth and adults perceived the acceptability of situations involving public intoxication and how gender and alcohol's harm to others were made relevant in their reflections. : We conducted eight focus groups among adolescents ( = 44) and eight among adults ( = 38), using photos and stories of drinking situations as stimuli for the discussions.

A virtual academy of polydrug use: Masters, novices and the art of combinations.

Aims: Information technology has become an essential part of drug culture, providing a platform for lay knowledge concerning drug use. Due to the co-effects of different substances, making substance "combos" requires advanced skills to enhance pleasures and manage risks. In this study, we focussed on Finnish and Swedish online discussions as a context for learning and sharing experiences of combining substances.

What is going on in underage drinking? Reflections on Finnish European school survey project on alcohol and other drugs data 1999-2015.

Introduction And Aims: As alcohol use has decreased among Finnish adolescents, we aim to assess: (i) time trends in alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking (HED) and potential explanatory variables among adolescents; (ii) the relationship between trends of explanatory variables and trends in alcohol use and HED; and (iii) which of the explanatory variables can account for the temporal change in alcohol use and HED.

Design And Methods: The analyses are based on European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs data collected from 15- to 16-year-old Finnish adolescents in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Results: The decline in alcohol use and HED among underage youth in Finland is associated with at least three factors: (i) obtaining alcohol has become more difficult; (ii) parents know better than before where their children spend their Friday nights; and (iii) the risk attached to going out with friends on drinking has decreased.

Following the moving and changing attachments and assemblages of 'addiction': Applying the actor network approach to autobiographies.

The article applies actor network theory (ANT) to autobiographical data on alcohol dependence to explore what ANT can offer to the analysis of 'addiction stories'. By defining 'addiction' as a relational achievement, as the effect of elements acting together as a configuration of human and non-human actors, the article demonstrates how the moving and changing attachments of addiction can be dynamically analyzed with concepts of 'assemblage', 'mediator', 'tendency', 'translation', 'trajectory', 'immutable mobile', 'fluid' and 'bush fire'. The article shows how the reduction of alcohol dependence simply to genetic factors, neurobiological causes, personality disorders and self-medication constitutes an inadequate explanation.

Harm Experienced from the Heavy Drinking of Family and Friends in the General Population: A Comparative Study of Six Northern European Countries.

Background: Epidemiological research on alcohol-related harm has long given priority to studies on harm to the drinker. A limitation with this perspective is that it neglects the harm drinking causes to people around the drinker, and thus, it fails to give a full picture of alcohol-related harm in society.

Aim: The aim was to compare the prevalence and correlates of experiencing harm from the heavy drinking by family and friends across the Nordic countries and Scotland and to discuss whether potential differences match levels of drinking, prevalence of binge drinking, and alcohol-related mortality.

"Disease" of the nation, family and individual: three moral discourses of alcohol problems in Finnish women's magazines from the 1960s to the 2000s.

Women's magazines can be seen as a genre that form feminized public spaces where everyday life contradictions of women's life are negotiated. The study examines the ways in which Finnish women's magazines have dealt with alcohol problems. The data covers six primary sampling years: 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 2000 and 2008.

From political controversy to a technical problem? Fifteen years of opioid substitution treatment in Finland.

Background: The aim of the article is to analyze changes in opioid substitution treatments (OST) in Finland. OST spread in Finland in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Phase 1). Since then, OST has become an integrated part of Finnish drug policy and is provided in various substance abuse treatment units as well as in municipal health centers (Phase 2).

Women and young adults suffer most from other people's drinking.

Introduction And Aims: Research on alcohol-related harm has predominantly focused on harm suffered by the drinker and priority has been given to health-related harms. In comparison, studies on alcohol's harms to others than the drinker are scarce. This study sought to examine the human sufferings from other people's drinking both in the public and in the private sphere.

The Finnish drinking culture: change and continuity in the past 40 years.

Introduction And Aims: In the past 40 years, per capita consumption has increased dramatically in Finland. We study the core changes in drinking culture over this period by age and sex.

Design And Methods: We used data from the Finnish Drinking Habit Surveys carried out every 8 years in 1968-2008 (n = 16385, response rates 74-97%).

Addiction research centres and the nurturing of creativity: the Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland: diverse problems, diverse perspectives.

The Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction started operations on 1 January 2009, when the National Institute of Public Health (KTL) and the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) were merged. The newly formed institute, called the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), operates under the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The scope of the research and preventive work conducted in the Department covers alcohol, drugs, tobacco and gambling issues.