Drinking on the Premises in Norway: Young Adults' use of Public Drinking Places

In this paper various aspects of young adults' use of premises licensed to sell alcoholic beverages are discussed. Data were obtained from national surveys of drinking habits in 1999 and 2004 (SIRUS), and the age group was 18 to 34 years. Bivariate methods showed a positive association between drinking in licensed premises and both alcohol consumption and frequency of intoxication. Frequent users of licensed premises had more often had both positive experiences (felt more optimistic or popular) and negative experiences (arguments or fights and symptoms of hang-over) related to their drinking. Results from a log-linear regression analysis showed that although some demographic groups tended to be intoxicated more often (men, younger people, single people and people without higher education), frequency of drinking in licensed premises had a strong positive effect on frequency of intoxication.