Open AccessWho are private alcohol importers in the Nordic countries?
Author(s) -
Ulrike Grittner,
Nina-Katri Gustafsson,
Petri Huhtanen,
Johan Svensson,
Sturla Nordlund,
Kim Bloomfield
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
nordisk alkohol- and narkotikatidskrift
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.431
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1458-6126
pISSN - 1455-0725
DOI - 10.2478/nsad-2014-0011
Subject(s) - alcohol consumption , logistic regression , demographics , population , alcohol , consumption (sociology) , environmental health , business , demography , medicine , biochemistry , chemistry , sociology , social science
Aims The high price of alcohol in the Nordic countries has been a long-standing policy to curb consumption, which has led consumers to importing alcohol from countries with lower prices. This paper seeks to develop a profile of alcohol importers in four Nordic countries.Methods Cross-sectional data from general population surveys in Denmark (2003-2006), Norway (2004), Sweden (2003-2006) and Finland (2005-2006) were analysed by multiple logistic and linear regression. Independent variables included region, socio-demographics, drinking indicators and alcohol-related problems. Outcome variables were importer status and amount of imported alcohol.Results People living in regions close to countries with lower alcohol prices were more often importers and imported higher amounts than people living in other regions. Higher educated persons were more likely to be importers, but the amounts imported were smaller than those by people with lower education. Persons with higher incomes were also more likely to be importers and they also imported larger amounts than people with lower incomes. In Sweden and Denmark regional differences of importer rates were more pronounced for persons of lower incomes. Age, risky single-occasion drinking, risky drinking and alcohol problems were positively related to the amounts of imported alcohol.Conclusions Private importers in the Nordic countries are an integrated yet heavy drinking segment of society and do not appear to be located on the fringes of society.