Health behavior in the Nordic countries
This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the level of and change in cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and body weight in Nordic countries and compares them with non-Nordic OECD countries. Our results show that the average prevalence of daily smokers is significantly lower for Nor...
Published in: | Nordic Journal of Health Economics |
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University of Oslo
2016
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:3faa172a5a814c579a6f83047991005f 2023-05-15T16:50:52+02:00 Health behavior in the Nordic countries Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir Ulf-G Gerdtham 2016-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5617/njhe.2717 https://doaj.org/article/3faa172a5a814c579a6f83047991005f EN eng University of Oslo https://journals.uio.no/NJHE/article/view/2717 https://doaj.org/toc/1892-9729 https://doaj.org/toc/1892-9710 doi:10.5617/njhe.2717 1892-9729 1892-9710 https://doaj.org/article/3faa172a5a814c579a6f83047991005f Nordic Journal of Health Economics, Vol 4, Iss 1 (2016) health behaviors smoking drinking body weight Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5617/njhe.2717 2022-12-30T22:12:55Z This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the level of and change in cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and body weight in Nordic countries and compares them with non-Nordic OECD countries. Our results show that the average prevalence of daily smokers is significantly lower for Nordic countries compared to non-Nordic countries. Four out of five Nordic countries are below the non-Nordic average. However, for alcohol consumption and obesity, it is more difficult to see a clear difference between Nordic countries and non-Nordic countries. Sweden ranks relatively low on all three health behaviors, while alcohol consumption is relatively high in Finland and Denmark. Smoking rates are relatively high in Norway, while the obesity rate is relatively high in Iceland. We conclude that although Nordic populations are often perceived as relatively homogeneous in terms of cultural and political aspects, there are interesting differences in health behaviors within these Nordic countries. These differences need more focus in health-economics research and may have a significant potential in light of the availability of health surveys and administrative register data that can sometimes be linked at the individual level. Such Nordic analyses may, in general, help to move the research front forward and can also be used to predict changes in population health and to study the effectiveness of health economic policies. Published: April 2016. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Norway Nordic Journal of Health Economics 4 1 28 40 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
health behaviors smoking drinking body weight Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 |
spellingShingle |
health behaviors smoking drinking body weight Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir Ulf-G Gerdtham Health behavior in the Nordic countries |
topic_facet |
health behaviors smoking drinking body weight Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 |
description |
This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the level of and change in cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and body weight in Nordic countries and compares them with non-Nordic OECD countries. Our results show that the average prevalence of daily smokers is significantly lower for Nordic countries compared to non-Nordic countries. Four out of five Nordic countries are below the non-Nordic average. However, for alcohol consumption and obesity, it is more difficult to see a clear difference between Nordic countries and non-Nordic countries. Sweden ranks relatively low on all three health behaviors, while alcohol consumption is relatively high in Finland and Denmark. Smoking rates are relatively high in Norway, while the obesity rate is relatively high in Iceland. We conclude that although Nordic populations are often perceived as relatively homogeneous in terms of cultural and political aspects, there are interesting differences in health behaviors within these Nordic countries. These differences need more focus in health-economics research and may have a significant potential in light of the availability of health surveys and administrative register data that can sometimes be linked at the individual level. Such Nordic analyses may, in general, help to move the research front forward and can also be used to predict changes in population health and to study the effectiveness of health economic policies. Published: April 2016. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir Ulf-G Gerdtham |
author_facet |
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir Ulf-G Gerdtham |
author_sort |
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir |
title |
Health behavior in the Nordic countries |
title_short |
Health behavior in the Nordic countries |
title_full |
Health behavior in the Nordic countries |
title_fullStr |
Health behavior in the Nordic countries |
title_full_unstemmed |
Health behavior in the Nordic countries |
title_sort |
health behavior in the nordic countries |
publisher |
University of Oslo |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5617/njhe.2717 https://doaj.org/article/3faa172a5a814c579a6f83047991005f |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Nordic Journal of Health Economics, Vol 4, Iss 1 (2016) |
op_relation |
https://journals.uio.no/NJHE/article/view/2717 https://doaj.org/toc/1892-9729 https://doaj.org/toc/1892-9710 doi:10.5617/njhe.2717 1892-9729 1892-9710 https://doaj.org/article/3faa172a5a814c579a6f83047991005f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5617/njhe.2717 |
container_title |
Nordic Journal of Health Economics |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
28 |
op_container_end_page |
40 |
_version_ |
1766040991198871552 |