Alcohol misuse as a health and social issue in the Baltic Sea region. A summary of findings from the Baltica Study.

The Baltic Sea region today is a scene of a double transition: the eastern transformation and the western integration. As a consequence, alcohol-related issues are undergoing extensive changes. As part of a study of prevalence and perception of social problems around the Baltic Sea (the Baltica Study), alcohol issues have been studied from four perspectives: official statistics, mass media, public opinion and views of influential groups. The Baltic Sea region contains countries from the top and from the bottom of the European statistics on alcohol consumption (Latvia and Sweden respectively). Alcohol has been an important political issue in the transition of many countries (Russia and Poland just before the transition, Sweden and also Finland in their processes of European Union integration). For the medically oriented alcohol research community, the most important finding is that the medical profession and medical and epidemiological arguments play a secondary role in most of the countries when it comes to the definition of the problem.