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Travellers' Alcohol Imports to Sweden at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Background Privately imported alcohol has increased during the last decade in Sweden. Estimates suggest an increase from 1.1 liter (pure alcohol) per inhabitant in 1996 to 2.7 liters in 2004, and a decrease to 1.8 liters by 2007. Privately imported alcohol represented approximately 20% of total consumption in Sweden during the period 2001–2007 and thus represents a large amount of all alcohol consumed. However, the drinking habits of importers have been rarely studied. Aim The main aim of this paper is to examine drinking patterns and experiences of alcohol-related problems among Swedes who bring alcohol in from abroad and to investigate whether these differ according to the levels of importing. In addition those who bring alcohol in from abroad are compared with those who do not. Data & Methods Data on private import of alcohol, alcohol consumption, adverse consequences of alcohol and socio-demographics were obtained from a monthly telephone survey for the period January 2002 until December 2007 and were aggregated into annual data. For each month a randomised population of 1,500 individuals where asked whether they had returned to Sweden from abroad. If they responded affirmatively they where then asked questions on how many times abroad, during the last 30 days, and if they had brought any alcohol to Sweden the last and or the second-to-the-last time. Irrespective of the respondent had been abroad or not questions on alcohol consumption, drinking patterns, adverse consequences and socio-demographics were asked. On average the telephone interviews lasted for approximately ten minutes. Logistic regressions was used to estimate the association between drinking habits (and problems) and different amounts of alcohol imports. Results The findings of this study indicate that those who import alcohol drink more and engage in binge drinking more frequently than those who do not. However, adverse consequences of alcohol consumption were not reported to the same degree as among the non-importers.