To drink or not to drink: A study of the association between rates of non-drinkers and per drinker mean alcohol consumption in the Swedish general population

Introduction: Understanding how the mean consumption per drinker and rates of non-drinking interplay to form overall per capita alcohol consumption is imperative for our understanding of population drinking. The aim of the present study is to examine the association between rates of non-drinkers and per drinker mean alcohol consumption in the Swedish adult population and for different percentiles of drinkers. Methods: Data came from a monthly telephone survey of drinking habits in the Swedish adult population between 2002 and 2013. Alcohol consumption and non-drinking during the last 30 days were measured by beverage-specific quantity-frequency questions. Regression models estimated the association between the rate of non-drinkers and per drinker volume on annual data. Auto-regressive integrated moving average time-series models estimated the association on monthly data. Results: A significant (P < 0.01) negative association (−0.849) was found between the rate of non-drinkers and per drinker mean volume on annual data. A unit increase in non-drinking was associated with a decline of 0.85 cl of pure alcohol among drinkers. This finding was mirrored across all percentiles of consumption. The semi-log models found that a 1% unit increase in the rate of non-drinkers was followed by a 2% reduction in per drinker mean consumption. Auto-regressive integrated moving average time-series models verified these results. Discussion and Conclusions: There is a significant association between the proportion of non-drinkers and the amount of drinking among drinkers. The theory of collectivity of drinking cultures should also include the non-drinking part of the population.