How Covid-19 restrictions affected young people's well-being and drinking practices: Analyzing interviews with a socio-material approach.

BACKGROUND: The Covid-19 restrictions - as they made young people's practices in their everyday life visible for reflection and reformation - provide a productive opportunity to study how changing conditions affected young people's well-being and drinking practices. METHODS: The data is based on qualitative interviews with 18- to 24-year-old Swedes (n=33) collected in the Autumn 2021. By drawing on the socio-material approach, the paper traces actants, assemblages and trajectories that moved the participants towards increased or decreased well-being during the lockdown. RESULTS: The Covid-19 restrictions made the participants reorganize their everyday life practices emphatically around the home and communication technologies. The restrictions gave rise to both worsened and improved well-being trajectories. In the worsened well-being trajectories, the pandemic restrictions moved the participants towards loneliness, loss of routines, passivity, physical barriers, self-centered thoughts, negative effects of digital technology, sleep deficit, identity crisis, anxiety, depression, and stress. In the improved well-being trajectories, the Covid-19 restrictions brought about freedom to study from a distance, more time for significant others, oneself and for one's own hobbies, new productive practices at home and a better understanding of what kind of person one is. Both worsened and improved well-being trajectories were related to the aim to perform well, and in them drinking practices either diminished or increased the participants' capacities and competencies for well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that material domestic spaces, communication technologies and performance are important actants both for alcohol consumption and well-being among young people. These actants may increase or decrease young people's drinking and well-being depending on what kinds of relations become assembled.

Beyond 'drinking occasions': Examining complex changes in drinking practices during COVID-19.

INTRODUCTION: 'Drinking occasions' are commonly used to capture quantities of alcohol consumed. Yet this standardised terminology brings with it numerous assumptions and epistemological limitations. We suggest that social changes brought on by COVID-19 restrictions have influenced routines, patterns of time use and drinking practices, highlighting the need to re-examine how we conceptualise drinking and 'drinking occasions' in alcohol research. METHODS: This analysis draws on data gathered from 59 qualitative interviews conducted during the second half of 2020 with Australian drinkers aged 18 and over. The interviews explored how COVID-19 restrictions impacted daily practices and alcohol consumption patterns. FINDINGS: Participants spoke about their work, study and social routines changing, which influenced the times, timing and contexts of their drinking practices. We separated these shifts into four overarching themes: shifting of structures shaping drinking; the permeability of drinking boundaries; the extension of drinking occasions; and new contexts for drinking. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: COVID-19 restrictions have led to shifts in the temporal boundaries and contexts that would otherwise shape people's drinking, meaning drinking practices may be less bound by structures, norms, settings and rituals. The drinking occasions concept, although a simple tool for measuring how much people drink, has not been able to capture these complex developments. This is a timely consideration given that COVID-19 may have enduring effects on people's lifestyles, work and drinking practices. It may be useful to examine drinking as practice, rather than just an occasion, in order to better contextualise epidemiological studies going forward.

Reducing the Harmful Use of Alcohol: Have International Targets Been Met?

Alcohol use has been identified in major United Nations (UN) initiatives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Non-Communicable Disease Action Plan, as a major contributor to the global burden of disease. As a result, levels of alcohol use serve as an official indicator of progress towards these UN-set goals. Given current trends, UN targets for reduced alcohol consumption are unlikely to be met. Moreover, in many countries, especially in low- and middle-income countries, the alcohol-attributable burden of disease continues to increase. Pressure will need to be exerted on national and international decision-makers to arrive at more powerful and normatively persuasive instruments, such as a treaty.

Purchasing, consumption, demographic and socioeconomic variables associated with shifts in alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Restrictions introduced to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have had major impacts on the living circumstances of Australians. This paper aims to provide insight into shifts in alcohol consumption and associated factors during the epidemic. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional convenience sample of 2307 Australians aged 18 and over who drank at least monthly was recruited through social media. Respondents were asked about their alcohol consumption and purchasing in 2019 prior to the epidemic plus similar questions about their experiences in the month prior to being surveyed between 29 April and 16 May 2020. RESULTS: Reports of average consumption before (3.53 drinks per day [3.36, 3.71 95% confidence interval]) and during (3.52 [3.34, 3.69]) the pandemic were stable. However, young men and those who drank more outside the home in 2019 reported decreased consumption during the pandemic, and people with high levels of stress and those who bulk-bought alcohol when restrictions were announced reported an increase in consumption relative to those who did not. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: A reported increase in consumption among those experiencing more stress suggests that some people may have been drinking to cope during the epidemic. Conversely, the reported decrease in consumption among those who drank more outside of their home in 2019 suggests that closing all on-trade sales did not result in complete substitution of on-premise drinking with home drinking in this group. Monitoring of relevant subgroups to assess long-term changes in consumption in the aftermath of the epidemic is recommended.