title: Unemployment in the teens and trajectories of alcohol consumption in adulthood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The unemployed are assumed to adopt unhealthy behaviours, including harmful use of alcohol. This study sought to elucidate the relations between unemployment before age 21 years and consumption of alcohol from 21 to 42 years. The design was based on the conception of youth as a sensitive period for obtaining 'drinking scars' that are visible up to middle age.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Northern Swedish Cohort Study has followed up a population sample from 1981 to 2007 with five surveys.
  
  
  METHODS
  All pupils (n=1083) attending the last year of compulsory school in Luleå participated in the baseline survey in classrooms, and 1010 of them (522 men and 488 women) participated in the last follow-up survey that was conducted at classmate reunions or by post or by phone.
  
  
  METHODS
  The trajectory of alcohol consumption from 21 to 43 years, obtained with latent class growth analyses, was scaled.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Men were assigned to five and women to three consumption trajectories. The trajectory membership was regressed on accumulation of unemployment from 16 to 21 years, with multinomial logistic regression analyses. The trajectory of moderate consumption was preceded by lowest exposure to unemployment in men and in women. With reference to this, the relative risk ratios for high-level trajectory groups were 3.49 (1.25 to 9.79) in men and 1.41 (0.74 to 2.72) in women, but also the trajectories of low-level consumption were more probable (relative risk ratio 3.18 (1.12 to 9.02) in men and 2.41 (1.24 to 4.67) in women).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High-level alcohol consumption throughout adulthood is, particularly among men, partly due to 'scars' from youth unemployment, particularly in men, but there are also groups of men and women where unemployment in the teens predicts a trajectory of low consumption.
authors.affiliation: University of Tampere, Institute for Advanced Social Research and School of Health Sciences, Tampere, Finland Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Virtanen
authors.affiliation: The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Tomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lintonen
authors.affiliation: University of Stockholm, Stress Research Centre, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Westerlund
authors.affiliation: University of Tampere, School of Health Sciences, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Tapio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nummi
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Urban
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Janlert
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hammarström
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D000066608:Underage Drinking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: alcohol consumption; population cohort; trajectory analysis; youth unemployment