Finland: Increases in Alcohol Availability and Consumption

Abstract

This article briefly describes the changes that Finland has undergone during the 1960–2012 period with regards to societal changes, alcohol control policies, alcohol-related harms, and alcohol consumption, after which the findings of the analyses made by Allamani and his colleagues in the AMPHORA project are discussed. It seems that despite the changes in the alcohol field, the strong and comprehensive control policy measures still have a solid footing in the Finnish society. It is also evident that the policy changes implemented over the course of the last decades have affected the development of the total alcohol consumption to a large degree in both positive and negative directions, depending on the kind of measure implemented.

Keywords :

• Finland
• alcohol control policy
• alcohol consumption
• societal changes
• alcohol-related harms

THE AUTHORS

Mikaela Lindeman, MSc, has been working as a researcher for the Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) since 2010. Her main research interests include comparative alcohol policies and public opinions on alcohol policies. Lindeman has been involved in EU-projects AMPHORA and ALICE RAP, and serves as a secretary for WHO:s Collaborating Centre on alcohol policy implementation and evaluation.

Esa Österberg, MSc., works as senior researcher at the Department of Alcohol and Addiction, National Institute for Health and Welfare, and is also a director of the WHO Collaborating Centre an alcohol policy implementation and evaluation. Österberg was a member of the research team writing “Alcohol Control Policies in Public Health Perspective” in 1975. He is a member of the Alcohol and Public Policy Group which produced the monograph “Alcohol Policy and the Public Good” in 1994 and “Alcohol—No Ordinary Commodity” in 2003 and its second edition in 2010.

Thomas Karlsson is a researcher and vice head of unit (Alcohol and Drugs) at the Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland. He has been active in the field of alcohol research since 1995 and has participated in several international research projects co-funded by the European Commission. Karlsson's main research topics include international and national level alcohol policy studies, studies on alcohol consumption, especially unrecorded consumption, and studies on public opinions on alcohol policy.