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

Figures & data

Figure 1. Yearly alcohol import in litres of alcohol in Greenland per person aged 15+ years from 1993 until 2014. Source: Statistics Greenland.

Table 1. Characteristics of participants in the 1993, 2005 and 2014 health surveys.

	1993 survey	2005 survey	2014 survey	Total sample
N	1,104	2,154	1,680	4,938
Women, n (%)	573 (51.9)	1147 (53.3)	1005 (59.8)	2,725 (55.2)
Age in years, mean (SD) Range	37.7 (13.9) 18–91	41.5 (13.4) 18–84	47.0 (14.3) 18–88	42.5 (14.3) 18–91
Birth cohort year, mean (SD) Range	1955 (14.0) 1902–1975	1964 (13.6) 1921–1990	1966 (14.3) 1925–1996	1963 (14.6) 1902–1996
Settlement type, n (%) Town	901 (81.6)	1,668 (77.4)	1,394 (83.0)	3,923 (80.2)
Region, n (%) North South Central East	426 (38.6) 231 (20.9) 397 (36.0) 50 (4.5)	629 (29.2) 457 (21.2) 816 (37.9) 252 (11.7)	511 (30.4) 225 (13.4) 779 (46.4) 165 (9.8)	1,566 (31.7) 913 (18.5) 1,992 (40.3) 467 (9.5)

Individuals who participated in one, two or all three surveys are included with their separate responses across surveys.

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Table 2. Alcohol consumption prevalence in relation to sex, calendar time, cohort and age.

		Abstention		Non-problematic alcohol use		Occasional binge drinking
		Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
	n (%)	334 (15.1)	615 (22.6)	678 (30.6)	1,199 (44.0)	1,201 (54.3)	911 (33.4)
		%	%	%	%	%	%
Calendar time^a
1993	1,104	13.4	27.8	28.3	44.2	58.3	28.0
2005	2,154	14.7	22.0	31.4	44.5	54.0	33.6
2014	1,680	14.2	24.4	32.1	42.4	53.8	33.2
Cohort
−1944	507	26.4	49.8	38.4	35.8	35.3	14.4
1945–1954	728	22.3	34.1	30.3	43.4	47.5	22.5
1955–64	1,453	12.5	18.2	27.4	47.6	60.1	34.3
1965–1974	1,243	13.5	18.4	29.6	44.3	56.9	37.3
1975–1984	587	4.4	17.6	32.3	47.8	63.3	34.6
1985-	420	8.6	16.7	31.5	34.5	59.9	48.8
Age
18–29	1,121	7.5	17.5	30.4	40.8	62.1	41.8
30–39	974	11.1	16.6	29.2	48.7	59.8	34.7
40–49	1,261	12.6	18.1	29.2	45.3	58.2	36.6
50–59	936	18.8	27.5	27.0	45.5	54.2	27.1
60–69	488	24.6	42.9	39.0	39.7	36.4	17.4
70–91	158	41.4	64.8	41.4	28.2	17.2	7.0

Individuals who participated in one, two or all three surveys are included with their separate responses across surveys.

^aProportions for calendar time were age standardised according to the age distribution in the total sample.

Table 3. Odds ratios of abstention and occasional binge drinking compared to non-problematic alcohol use in relation to sex, age, cohort and calendar time.

	Abstention compared to non-problematic alcohol use				Occasional binge drinking compared to non-problematic alcohol use
	Male		Female		Male		Female
	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI
Calendar time^a
1993	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref
2005	1.1	0.7–1.5	0.8	0.6–1.1	0.7	0.6–0.9	1.1	0.8–1.4
2014	1.1	0.7–1.6	1.0	0.8–1.4	0.7	0.5–1.0	1.2	1.0–1.6
P-value	0.9		0.1		0.02		0.2
Cohort^a
−1944	0.7	0.4–1.4	1.4	0.8–2.4	1.3	0.8–2.1	0.7	0.4–1.3
1945–1954	1.1	0.6–1.9	1.0	0.7–1.6	1.3	0.8–1.9	0.7	0.5–1.1
1955–64	0.8	0.5–1.2	0.7	0.5–1.0	1.4	1.0–1.9	0.9	0.7–1.2
1965–1974	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref
1975–1984	0.3	0.1–0.7	0.8	0.6–1.3	0.9	0.6–1.3	0.8	0.6–1.0
1985-	0.6	0.3–1.4	1.3	0.8–2.1	0.7	0.5–1.2	1.4	0.9–2.1
P-value	0.02		0.08		0.3		0.05
Age^b
18–29	0.8	0.4–1.6	0.9	0.6–1.3	1.4	0.9–2.0	1.1	0.8–1.5
30–39	1.0	0.6–1.6	0.8	0.6–1.2	1.1	0.8–1.5	0.9	0.7–1.1
40–49	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref	1.0	Ref
50–59	1.7	1.1–2.6	1.6	1.2–2.1	1.0	0.7–1.3	0.8	0.6–1.1
60–69	1.4	0.9–2.4	2.2	1.5–3.4	0.4	0.3–0.7	0.7	0.4–1.1
70–91	2.8	1.4–5.4	3.7	1.9–7.2	0.2	0.1–0.4	0.4	0.2–1.3
P-value	0.02		0.0003		<0.0001		0.3

All models are adjusted for region (North, South, Central and East Greenland) and settlement type (town and village). The statistical models account for repeated measurements.

^aRegression models of cohort and calendar time are also adjusted for age.

^bRegression models of age are also adjusted for cohort.