title: Coffee drinking among Finnish youth.
abstract: The suggestion that coffee may have negative health effects has made coffee-drinking habits medically interesting. This paper reports upon coffee use among young people and describes how coffee-users differ from non-users. Data comes from questionnaires from representative nationwide samples of 12-18-year-old Finnish youth in 1977-1985. Their coffee use decreased from 1977 to 1985, and the decrease could be seen in all age and socio-demographic groups studied. In 1981, 35% of the girls and 45% of the 12-year-old boys drank coffee daily. For 18-year-olds the corresponding percentages were 67 and 75, and the mean number of cups consumed per day was 2.3 and 3.1. Compared to the non-users, the coffee-users were from lower social classes, lived more often in the countryside, and had poorer school achievement. Health-damaging habits such as smoking were more common among the coffee-users, their perceived health was somewhat poorer, and they seemed to mature earlier. The difference in regard to health disappeared after adjusting for differences in socio-demographic background and health habits. The heavy users (four cups or more a day) usually differed more from the non-users than did the moderate users (one to three cups daily).
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hemminki
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rahkonen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rimpelä
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rimpelä
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003069:Coffee / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee