{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:45:26Z","timestamp":1787028326186,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,16]],"date-time":"2021-04-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1618531200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Little is known about possible changes in alcohol consumption distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated how individual changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic translated into changes in: (i) mean consumption; (ii) dispersion of consumption distribution; and (iii) prevalence of heavy drinkers. We employed data from two independent web-surveys of Norwegian adults collected between April and July 2020 and limited to those reporting past year alcohol consumption (N1 = 15,267, N2 = 1195). Self-reports of changes in drinking behavior were quantified, assuming change being relative to baseline consumption level. During the pandemic, we found a small increase (Survey 1) or no change (Survey 2) in estimated mean alcohol consumption (which parallels to total consumption). However, in both surveys, the dispersion of the distribution increased significantly (p &lt; 0.001). For most respondents, an average modest decline in consumption was found. However, the small fraction with the highest baseline consumption increased their consumption substantially, and in effect, the proportion of heavy drinkers increased markedly (p &lt; 0.001). In conclusion, quantifications of reported changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic suggest that the upper 5 to 10% of the drinkers increased their consumption and hence the prevalence of heavy drinkers increased, despite little or no change in total alcohol consumption.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph18084231","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,16]],"date-time":"2021-04-16T10:20:11Z","timestamp":1618568411000},"page":"4231","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":51,"title":["Changes in Alcohol Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic\u2014Small Change in Total Consumption, but Increase in Proportion of Heavy Drinkers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Ingeborg","family":"Rossow","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0213 Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7559-8885","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elin K.","family":"Bye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0213 Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Inger Synn\u00f8ve","family":"Moan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0213 Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5913-6488","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carolin","family":"Kilian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"J\u00f8rgen G.","family":"Bramness","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0213 Oslo, Norway"},{"name":"Institute of Clinical Medicine, UiT\u2014The Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Troms\u00f8, Norway"},{"name":"Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Concurrent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders, Innlandet Hospital Trust, 2381 Brumunddal, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e51","DOI":"10.1016\/S2468-2667(19)30231-2","article-title":"National, regional, and global burdens of disease from 2000 to 2016 attributable to alcohol use: A comparative risk assessment study","volume":"5","author":"Shield","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet Public Health"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1015","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(18)31310-2","article-title":"Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990\u20132016: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016","volume":"392","author":"Griswold","year":"2018","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1447","DOI":"10.1111\/add.12520","article-title":"The collectivity of changes in alcohol consumption revisited","volume":"109","author":"Rossow","year":"2014","journal-title":"Addiction"},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"83","article-title":"The Collectivity of Drinking Cultures: A Theory of the Distribution of Alcohol Consumption","volume":"80","author":"Skog","year":"1985","journal-title":"Addiction"},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"144","article-title":"Defining Risk Drinking","volume":"34","author":"Dawson","year":"2011","journal-title":"Alcohol Res. 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