title: Alcohol policy changes and trends in adolescent drinking in Finland from 1981 to 2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test if changes in national alcohol policy have had an impact on alcohol use among 12- to 18-year-old adolescents in Finland over a 30-year period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Frequencies of drinking any amounts of alcohol and drinking alcohol until really drunk from bi-annual repeated cross-sectional surveys from 1981 to 2011 were examined against a national alcohol policy review using nationally representative samples of 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-year-old adolescents (n = 99,724) in Finland.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve-year-olds' alcohol drinking remained rare throughout the period. Drinking among 18-year-olds generally increased throughout the period. Significant increases until the late 1990s and decreases thereafter were observed in 14- and 16-year-olds' drinking patterns. A sharp increase was predicted between 2003 and 2005 as a result of EU-related processes, but instead decrease was observed among 14-16-year-olds. The tests of hypothesized decrease from 2005 to 2011 due to tightening alcohol policy including several tax raises produced mixed results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Alcohol policy changes between 1981 and 2011 seem not to have had noticeable influence on alcohol drinking or drunkenness among the under-aged in Finland. Conspicuous increases seen in population total consumption in association with EU-related developments have not materialized among adolescents.
authors.affiliation: The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, P.O. Box 30, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland. tomi.lintonen@uta.fi
authors.forename: Tomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lintonen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karlsson
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nevalainen
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011640:Public Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires