Alcohol consumption under lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in three Nordic countries

• Published in: International journal of social psychiatry Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 48 - 58
• Main Authors: Gunnerlind, Oscar, Lundqvist, Robert, Ott, Michael, Werneke, Ursula
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2024; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: alcohol; Alcohol use; Attribution; COVID-19; Daylight; Gastronomy; Imports; Nordic countries; pandemic; Pandemics; Sales; seasonal; Norway; Sweden; Finland; COVID-19; alcohol; Nordic countries; pandemic; seasonal
• ISSN: 0020-7640; 1741-2854; 1741-2854
• DOI: 10.1177/00207640231194486

Background: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns arose about a possible rise in alcohol consumption. Early surveys, however, more commonly pointed towards a decrease of alcohol use. But studies based on self-reports may underestimate alcohol use. They also depend on the population sampled. Because of border closures and gastronomy restrictions, countries with centralised alcohol sales provided a unique opportunity to study total domestic consumption during the pandemic without influence of private import or reliance on self-reports. Aims: We examined the correlation between alcohol sales and national COVID-19 restrictions in three such countries, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Method: We conducted this study as a mirror image study, comparing alcohol sales during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic with the two preceding years. We explored hours of daylight/season as potential confounders. Results: We found no relevant change in alcohol sales during the pandemic years for Finland or Sweden. For Norway, there was a level-change in sales, which could be explained by decreased imports. Sales followed a seasonal pattern. In all three countries, the initial pandemic increase in alcohol sales coincided with an underlying annually recurring seasonal variation. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic had less of an impact on alcohol consumption in the three Nordic countries than could intuitively be expected. The increase of alcohol sales at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a seasonal rise following a pre-pandemic pattern. Therefore, caution should be exercised with drawing conclusions from data with a short time perspective to avoid attribution bias.