Trends in alcohol consumption among adolescents in Europe: Do changes occur in concert?

Drug Alcohol Depend

IFT Institut für Therapieforschung, Munich, Germany; Department of Public Health Sciences, Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.

Published: November 2021

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study investigates adolescent alcohol use across 26 European countries, using data from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) spanning from 1999 to 2019, aiming to understand trends in both heavy and light drinkers.
  • Findings indicate varied trends in alcohol consumption, with 15 countries showing collective decreases and 11 demonstrating polarized trends, suggesting divergent behaviors between heavy and light drinkers.
  • The results highlight the need for targeted intervention strategies, as changes in drinking behavior vary across consumption levels, particularly noting that heavy drinkers did not improve as much as light drinkers.

Article Abstract

Objective: The present paper extends the scope of testing Skog's theory on the 'collectivity of drinking culture' to adolescent alcohol use in 26 European countries. The aim was to 1) examine whether changes in adolescent alcohol use are consistent across different consumption levels, and 2) explore whether trends in heavy and light drinkers diverged or converged.

Method: Data came from six waves of the cross-sectional European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) between 1999 and 2019. The sample consisted of n = 452,935 students aged 15-16 years. Trends in alcohol volume across consumption levels including abstainers were estimated by quantile regression models (50th, 80th, 90th and 95th percentile). Countries were classified according to trends showing (soft/hard) collectivity or (soft/hard) polarisation. Trends in heavy drinkers were compared with the population trend.

Results: Trends in alcohol consumption at different levels across 26 European countries in the period 1999-2019 were not homogeneous. Collective changes were found in 15 (14 soft/1 hard), and polarised trends in 11 countries (5 soft/6 hard). Collectivity was generally associated with a declining trend. In 18 countries, trends in heavy and light drinkers diverged.

Conclusion: Accepting some variation in the strength of changes across consumption levels, changes in many European countries occurred in the same direction. Yet, diverging trends at different consumption levels in most countries indicate a less beneficial change in heavy compared with light drinkers, implying that in addition to universal population-level strategies, intervention strategies targeting specific risk groups are needed to prevent alcohol-related harm.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109020DOI Listing

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