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Background: Over the past 25 years, global opioid consumption has increased. Denmark ranks fifth in opioid use globally, exceeding other Scandinavian countries. Postsurgical pain is a common reason for opioid prescriptions, but opioid use patterns after patient discharge from the hospital are unclear. This study examines trends in opioid prescription among Danish surgical patients over a year. Methods: This register‐based cohort study will use data from Danish governmental databases related to patients undergoing the 10 most frequent surgical procedures in 2018, excluding cancer‐related and minor procedures. The primary outcome will be the dispensed postoperative opioid prescriptions at retail pharmacies over four quarters. Secondary analyses will include associations with sex, age, education attainment, and oral morphine equivalent quotient. Surgical treatments and diagnoses will be identified using NOMESCO procedure codes and ICD‐10 codes. Opioids will be identified by ATC codes N02A and R05DA04. Subjects will be classified as preoperative opioid consumers or non‐opioid consumers based on opioid prescriptions redeemed in the 6 months before surgery. Discussion: The study will use extensive national register‐based data, ensuring consistent data collection and enhancing the generalizability of the findings to similar healthcare systems. The study may identify high‐risk populations for long‐term opioids and provide information to support opioid prescribing guidelines and public health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prior research has shown that using lifetime abstainers as the reference group to examine the association between alcohol use and health‐related consequences has several disadvantages. The aim of the present study was to examine the consistency of self‐reported lifetime abstention and never‐binge drinking, respectively, using national, longitudinal data collected in 2019 and 2020. Additionally, the prevalence of alcohol‐related morbidity among lifetime abstainers was examined by linking survey data to alcohol‐related morbidity data in a national patient register. Methods: Data come from the Danish Health and Wellbeing Survey in 2019 and from a follow‐up survey of the same individuals in 2020. A random sample of 14,000 individuals aged 15 years or older was drawn in mid‐August 2019. Data were collected between September and December 2019. All those who were invited to the survey in 2019 and who were still alive and living in Denmark were invited to participate in a follow‐up survey in 2020. Data in both waves were collected by self‐administered questionnaires. Both questionnaires included the standard questions on alcohol consumption from the European Health Interview Survey model questionnaire. Information on alcohol‐related morbidity was obtained from the Danish National Patient Register. Results: In all, 5000 individuals completed the questionnaire in both waves. Approximately half (44.4%) of the individuals who declared that they were lifetime abstainers in 2020 (n = 252) had reported in 2019 to have drunk at some point in their life. Moreover, 39.7% contradicted earlier reported binge drinking. Furthermore, 2.4% of the respondents who defined themselves as lifetime abstainers in 2020 had earlier been diagnosed with an alcohol‐related health condition. Conclusion: The present research reaffirms previous studies which have found self‐reported lifetime abstainers to be unreliable as a consistent reference group. Additionally, the results indicated that a non‐negligible proportion of lifetime abstainers had been diagnosed with an alcohol‐related health condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To study social disparity in acute pancreatitis (AP) and chronic pancreatitis (CP).We also aimed at exploring whether an interaction exists between alcohol intake and socioeconomic factors. Methods Prospective cohort study based on data from 271 696 men and women participating in the Danish National Health Surveys 2010, and 2013. Information on alcohol and smoking parameters, body mass index (BMI), diet, and education, were self-reported and information on family income was obtained from administrative registers. Outcome variables (acute and chronic pancreatitis) were obtained from national health registers. Results The incidence rate ratio (IRR) of developing AP and CP increased with decreasing family income. Compared to participants in the highest income quintile, participants in the lowest income quintile had 43 (95% CI: 14–80%), 99 (95% CI: 26–214%), and 56% (95% CI: 26–94%) higher incidence rates of AP, CP, and all pancreatitis, respectively. The associations persisted after adjustment for alcohol intake, smoking, BMI, and diet. Likewise, participants with only primary school education had an IRR for an AP of 1.30 (95% CI: 1.06–1.59) compared to those with higher education after adjustment for baseline year, age, and sex. We found no interactions between alcohol intake and income or between alcohol intake and education in relation to neither AP, CP, nor all pancreatitis. Conclusion This large prospective population study showed a significant social disparity in incidence rates of pancreatitis by family income, with higher rates among those with the lowest income and education independent of risk factors such as alcohol intake, smoking, BMI, and diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate: (1) whether self-reported acute alcohol-related consequences among adolescents in the Nordic countries have declined in concert with the decline in alcohol consumption; (2) whether the relationship between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences has strengthened; and (3) whether the decline in alcohol-related consequences can be attributed to the decline in alcohol consumption. Methods: Data are from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) cross-sectional surveys in 2007, 2011 and 2015. Participants were students aged 15–16 years in 2007 (n = 16,035), 2011 (n = 14,765) and 2015 (n = 13,517). Alcohol consumption variables included lifetime and 12-month alcohol use, volume ethanol at last drinking occasion and heavy episodic drinking in the past 30 days. Self-reported acute alcohol-related consequences were measured as a sum index of experiencing the following at least once within the last 12 months: (1) an accident or injury; (2) being victimised by robbery or theft; or (3) had trouble with the police. Results: For all alcohol indicators, adolescent alcohol use decreased between 2007 and 2015. The highest prevalence estimates were found in Denmark, and here only the number of current drinkers decreased significantly. In addition, a decreasing trend in self-reported acute alcohol-related consequences was observed. We did not find a strengthening of the alcohol consumption consequences association from 2007 to 2015, except in Iceland. When all surveys were combined, the decrease in alcohol-related consequences could be explained by a decrease in alcohol consumption. Conclusions: Overall, adolescents aged 15–16 years exhibited decreasing trends in both alcohol consumption, less markedly in Denmark, and in our sum index of alcohol-related consequences between 2007 and 2015. Except for Iceland, we found no support for a strengthening of the alcohol-consequences association with declining drinking among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the prevalence of loneliness in Denmark from 2000 to 2021 by conducting age-period-cohort analysis. Methods: Our study was based on a sample (N =83,437; age: ⩾16 years) of the Danish Health and Morbidity Surveys conducted in Denmark in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021. We used logistic regression models by gender to estimate the age-period-cohort effects, with loneliness as the dependent variable and age, survey year and birth cohort as independent variables, mutually adjusted. Results: The prevalence of adult loneliness increased by each survey year over the entire period (from 13.2% in 2000 to 27.4% in 2021 among men and from 18.8% to 33.7% among women). Overall, a U-shaped curve, for the prevalence of loneliness among different age groups, was observed, which was most pronounced among women. The greatest increase in the prevalence of loneliness from 2000 to 2021 was observed among the youngest age group (16–24 years), with 28.4 and 30.7 percentage points for men and women. No significant cohort effect was observed. Conclusions: The observed increase in loneliness prevalence from 2000 to 2021 was driven by period and age effects rather than cohort effects. It should be noted that data from 2021 were collected during a national lockdown due to an outbreak of COVID-19, which could explain part of the large increase in loneliness from 2017 to 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In the 21st century, there has been a decline in alcohol use among adolescents in most Nordic countries, while trends of cannabis use have diverged. We explore how alcohol and cannabis use, respectively, and co‐use of the two substances, have changed among Nordic adolescents. Three hypotheses are used to frame the study: (i) cannabis use has substituted alcohol use; (ii) there has been a parallel decline in both substances; and/or (iii) there has been a 'hardening' of users, implying that alcohol users increasingly use cannabis. Methods: Data from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, conducted among 15‐ to 16‐year‐olds in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (N = 74,700, 49% boys), were used to explore trends of past‐year alcohol and cannabis use in the period 2003–2019. Results: The proportion of adolescents reporting alcohol use decreased significantly in all Nordic countries except Denmark. The proportion of those using cannabis only was low (0.0%–0.7%) and stable in all countries. The total number of substance use occasions declined among all adolescents in all countries but Denmark. Among alcohol users, cannabis use became increasingly prevalent in all countries but Denmark. Discussion and Conclusions: We found no support for the 'parallel decline hypothesis' in alcohol and cannabis use among Nordic adolescents. Partially in line with the 'substitution hypothesis', cannabis use accounted for an increasing proportion of all substance use occasions. Our results suggests that the co‐use of alcohol and cannabis has become more common, thus also providing support to the 'hardening' hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]