Exploring sex-specific time trends in drinking patterns in the Greenlandic population from 1993 to 2014 – a large Arctic Indigenous population

ABSTRACT

A drinking pattern characterised by occasional excessive drinking is a key challenge for public health in Greenland. The objective was to examine sex-specific time trends in drinking patterns among Greenland Inuit. Cross-sectional and cohort data from geographically representative health surveys in 1993, 2005–2010 and 2014 were included (n = 4,938). Drinking patterns were defined as abstainer, non-problematic and occasional binge drinking. Patterns were analysed by sex-specific crude proportions and logistical analyses according to age, birth cohort and calendar time, accounting for region and settlement type. More than half of the men and one-third of the women had an occasional binge drinking pattern, while 22.6% of females and 15.1% of men were abstainers. Abstention increased with increasing age, while occasional binge drinking decreased among men. Younger male birth cohorts were less likely to have an occasional binge drinking pattern, while the youngest females had the highest odds ratio. A drinking pattern characterised by occasional excessive use remains a key challenge for public health in Greenland with age as a strong predictor. A high prevalence of abstainers co-exists with a high prevalence of occasional binge drinking. The increased odds ratio for occasional binge drinking among younger females should be addressed further.

KEYWORDS:

• Drinking patterns
• time trends
• indigenous
• arctic
• greenland
• health surveys

Acknowledgments

The research is based on data from the nationwide population health surveys in Greenland funded by the Ministry of Health (Government of Greenland), the Ministry of Health (Denmark), The Danish Environmental Protection Agency, NunaFonden, the Karen Elise Jensen Foundation and Independent Research Fond Denmark. Funding agents did not play any role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; nor were they included in the process of this paper. Authors would like to thank all participants for their time and participation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.