Tore Bonsaksen, Trond Heir, Laila Skogstad, Tine K. Grimholt, Øivind Ekeberg, Anners Lerdal and Inger Schou-Bredal
Harmful use of alcohol is a major public health problem. While harm is often researched in the context of heavy drinking episodes, high-frequency drinking, even when drinking…
Abstract
Purpose
Harmful use of alcohol is a major public health problem. While harm is often researched in the context of heavy drinking episodes, high-frequency drinking, even when drinking moderate quantities, constitutes a health risk in a longer perspective. The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of daily use of alcohol in the Norwegian general population and to assess sociodemographic, mental health-related and personal resource variables associated with daily use of alcohol.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey concerned with health, illness and serious life events was distributed to 5,500 persons in the general population in Norway (response rate 36%). Sociodemographic variables, personal resource variables (general self-efficacy, optimism and extraversion) and psychological distress (current anxiety and/or depression) were assessed with regards to their associations with daily drinking in unadjusted and adjusted regression models.
Findings
Daily use of alcohol was reported by 39 persons (2.2%) in the sample (3.1% of men and 1.4% of women). While general self-efficacy, optimism and extraversion were unrelated to daily drinking, the adjusted model revealed that male sex (OR: 2.18, p < 0.05), being unemployed/not in education (OR: 3.10, p < 0.05) and reporting current anxiety and/or depression (OR: 3.12, p < 0.01) were associated with daily use of alcohol.
Originality/value
The study has contributed to the knowledge about daily drinkers in a representative sample of the Norwegian population. A proportion of 2.2% was found to drink alcohol on a daily basis. Compared to their counterparts, the odds of daily drinking were higher for men, unemployed persons and persons reporting current psychological distress. Public health initiatives aiming at reducing harmful use of alcohol may pay particular attention to these subsets of the population.
Details
Keywords
Hilde Bjørkhaug and Siri Øyslebø Sørensen
Lack of women in boardrooms and management has been a common feature of corporate and agricultural sectors in Norway. In both sectors, quota reforms have been implemented in order…
Abstract
Lack of women in boardrooms and management has been a common feature of corporate and agricultural sectors in Norway. In both sectors, quota reforms have been implemented in order to change this situation. This chapter analyses the reasons given for applying gender quotas. While public limited companies were enforced by law to elect a minimum 40 per cent women or men to their boards in 2008, the board of the Federation of Norwegian Agricultural Co-operatives (FNAC) voluntarily decided that a minimum of 40 per cent women or men should be represented in their boards by 2009. How could it be that the agricultural cooperatives introduced this voluntarily, while the business corporations were to be forced by legislation? Public documents, governmental papers, media texts and interview data are analysed to identify and compare the reasoning for gender board quotas. The comparison sheds light on our understanding of the boardroom quota as more complex than simply to deal with gender equality. Traditional gender equality arguments did play a role, but in different ways, articulations and emphasis. More pragmatic reasoning played a role. In FNAC, we saw that the process of organisation-building and modernisation played an important role in the decision to voluntarily introduce gender quotas on boards. Within the corporate sector there were no advocates for introducing gender quotas before profitability arguments came to the fore, but even though such arguments were acceptable to the corporate sector, they did not have the same effect in terms of getting volunteer support for gender quotas.