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Having an Alcoholic Partner Is Bad for Your Health
Women whose partners had drinking problems had multiple medical and psychological dysfunctions.
Violence by alcoholic men toward their partners is common, especially on the men’s drinking days; rates have been estimated at 50% to 65% in those starting alcoholism treatment. To assess how women’s self-perceived health status is affected by their partners’ alcohol-use disorders (AUDs), researchers analyzed interview data from a national alcohol comorbidity study involving 43,093 noninstitutionalized civilians in the U.S.
Of the married or cohabiting female respondents, 2% reported living with a man who had a current alcohol problem. After adjustment for various possible confounders (e.g., women’s AUDs or other substance use, and sociodemographic factors), the risks for being the victim of a violent crime or for having had multiple injuries, mood and anxiety disorders, and fair or poor health in the previous year were two to three times higher in these women than in partners of men without current alcohol problems. The greatest risk was for a past-year mood disorder (odds ratio, 3.4). Again after adjustment for confounders, women with partner alcohol problems experienced 46% more negative life events during the past year, and they rated their psychological and physical quality of life 11% and 5% lower, than did women without partner alcohol problems. All of these differences were statistically significant.
Comment: Only a minority of women have partners with a past or current AUD. However, these women are at increased risk for poor physical and mental health, and not all of this risk is explained by their own alcohol use or by being injured by their partners. It is especially important to evaluate injuries and anxiety and depressive disorders in the partners of men in alcoholism treatment.
— Steven Dubovsky, MD
Published in Journal Watch Psychiatry March 5, 2007
Citation(s):
Dawson DA et al. The impact of partner alcohol problems on women’s physical and mental health. J Stud Alcohol 2007 Jan; 68:66-75.
- Medline abstract (Free)