Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

INTRODUCTION Jussi Simpura Trends in alcohol consumption and drinking patterns: sociological and economic explanations and alcohol policies___________________________________ 3 RESEARCH REPORTS Håkan Leifman Homogenisation in alcohol consumption in the European Union ____________________________ 15 Jussi Simpura & Thomas Karlsson Trends in drinking patterns among adult population in 15 European countries, 1950 to 2000: a review ____________________________ 31 Håkan Leifman Estimations of unrecorded alcohol consumption levels and trends in 14 European countries ___ 54 Björn Trolldal Alcohol sales figures in 15 European countries: corrected for consumption abroad and tax-free purchases _________________________________ 71 Thomas Karlsson & Jussi Simpura Changes in living conditions and their links to alcohol consumption and When we aim to explain variation between countries in the prevalence of alcohol-related harm, what are the factors that matter? The favourite explanatory factor has been per cap-ita alcohol consumption (e.g. Edwards et al. 1994), but more and more voices are heard to insist that drinking patterns could matter more than the mere level of consumption (e.g. Rehm 1999). Beyond this basic dispute, a number of others lurk behind and require attention. What can actually be known about changes in alcohol consumption and variation therein between countries? How exactly can we establish the level of alcohol consumption, JUSSI SIMPURA Trends in alcohol consumption and drinking patterns: sociological and economic explanations and alcohol policies given the fact that a significant proportion of consumption may go unrecorded and be left outside the official consumption statistics? What do we know about changes behind consumption curves, and about trends in drinking patterns in particular? Are we led by our imagination more than by research evidence in believing that drinking patterns have changed and can be changed? What about possible explanations for trends and differences in alcohol consumption and drinking pat-terns? What is the power of the economic ex-planations? Where and how do cultural factors and changes in living condition enter into the picture? And finally, what could be the role of alcohol policy measures in influencing alcohol consumption, drinking patterns and alcohol-related harm? Many would want to believe in them, but there is wide disagreement on which measures are feasible. All these questions lie in the background of the European Comparative Alcohol Study (ECAS). This collection of articles, a thematic issue of the NAT, will deal with trends in alcohol consumption and drinking patterns, with underlying economic factors and changes in living conditions, and the alcohol policies in different …