Alcohol Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Self-Reported Changes and Motives for Change

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b> In Europe, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a range of restrictive measures, which may have impacted alcohol consumption. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> We explored perceived changes in alcohol consumption, their association with sociodemographic characteristics and past year alcohol consumption, and self-reported reasons for change after CO­VID-19 restrictions in Norway. <b><i>Method:</i></b> A web-based survey was sent to Norwegians aged 18 years and older in June–July 2020. Respondents reporting any past year alcohol use (<i>n</i> = 1,200) were asked whether they drank less, approximately the same, or more after the COVID-19 restrictions compared to before and reasons for drinking less or more. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Almost a third (29.9%) reported they drank less, whereas 13.3% reported they drank more. Females, younger respondents, and Oslo residents were more likely to report both less and more drinking (<i>p</i> values between 0.001 and 0.029). Past year alcohol use was associated with less drinking (OR = 0.93; <i>p</i> < 0.001) and more drinking (OR = 1.07; <i>p</i> < 0.001). More drinking was also associated with living with child(ren) (<i>p</i> = 0.023) and high educational level (<i>p</i> = 0.029). The most frequently reported reasons for drinking less pertained to fewer social occasions and less on-premise drinking, whereas reasons for drinking more pertained to treating oneself to something good and fewer consequences of drinking more. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> After the COVID-19 restrictions were implemented, a substantial proportion of Norwegians changed their drinking behaviour.

Changes in Alcohol Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Small Change in Total Consumption, but Increase in Proportion of Heavy Drinkers

“…Consistent with our findings, most studies found that a majority of those reporting a change, had reduced their drinking [10,14,15,18,21,31,32]. Moreover, our finding that an increase in drinking more often was reported when initial consumption was high, corroborates previous findings [9,20,24].…”

“…Hence, the estimated increase in the dispersion of the distribution and the increase in the prevalence of heavy drinkers might in fact represent an underestimate. However, sales data and estimates of unrecorded consumption for Norway suggest a slight increase or no change in total alcohol consumption in the second quarter of 2020 (the first months of the pandemic) compared to the same period in 2019 [20], which corresponds quite well with our findings. Additionally, the ESAC survey seems to have reached heavier drinkers to a larger extent, since baseline consumption was slightly above the usual population average [22].…”

“…During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many survey studies found that a large proportion of current drinkers reported they had changed their consumption, either by drinking less or by drinking more [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. In most of these studies, the proportion having decreased their consumption was larger than that reporting increased consumption.…”

“…This tendency for more people to report a decrease, could be interpreted as an indication of a decrease in overall consumption, which in turn would be expected due to reduced affordability and less social availability during the pandemic [23]. However, individual changes in consumption seem to be contingent on the initial drinking level; several studies found that those with initial low consumption tended to report less drinking during the pandemic, and those with a high initial level, tended to report more drinking [9,20,22,24]. These findings may suggest that despite a preponderance of people reporting reduced drinking, the overall consumption-in the survey samples-is not necessarily reduced.…”

Semper Aliquid Haeret

“…The long-term psychological consequences for the health of the general population could end up being as significant as those caused by the direct infectious consequences. Let us contribute together with information published in this issue [1][2][3][4][5] on education, early detection, and early intervention to counteract this and to improve mental health and the quality of life in this challenging time.…”