Along with feelings of independence, living alone might also cause an increased risk of alcohol-related death, according to a study from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
Researchers analyzed the deaths of 80 percent of all people living in Finland between 2000 and 2007 for the study. Roughly 18,200 people died from underlying alcohol-related causes such as liver disease, alcohol poisoning or alcohol-related deaths such as accidents, violence and cardiovascular disease. And two-thirds of these people lived alone.
It was also discovered that a decrease in the price of alcohol in 2004 led to an increase in alcohol-related deaths as well. Men living alone were 3.7 times more likely to die from liver disease between 2000 and 2003 than married men, but that number rose to 4.9 between 2004 and 2007.
According to the authors, “Living alone is associated with a substantially increased risk of alcohol-related mortality, irrespective of gender, socioeconomic status or the specific cause of death. Further longitudinal research is needed to confirm the generalizability of our findings to other countries with different alcohol cultures (e.g., Mediterranean wine culture) and to identify selective and causal processes underlying the association between living alone and alcohol abuse.”
Source: Eurekalert
Heather Rudow is a staff writer for Counseling Today. Email her at hrudow@counseling.org.