In order to assess the effects of the pandemic, the attitudes towards the COVID-19 regulations, and the (health) behaviours of the population of study, the Lifelines COVID-19 cohort was developed (n = 76,795) (Mc Intyre et al., 2021). Participants were asked to fill out detailed web-based questionnaires about their physical and mental health, living situation, and health behaviours between late March 2020 and July 2021 -first, on a biweekly basis, after June 2020 on a monthly basis-, with a total of 24 waves. For the purpose of our study, 13 waves of COVID-19 questionnaire panel data were used (those with questions on alcohol consumption), covering the period between April 2020 and July 2021. Our final sample consists of 451,128 observations nested in 63,194 individuals (61.2% female; mean age 57.2 years). Moreover, data of the same participants from three previous waves of the Lifelines cohort study that included information on alcohol consumption -waves 1, 4 and 5- were used for comparative purposes.
