Living in neighborhoods characterized by unemployment, poverty, poor family integration and high residential mobility is known to contribute to a greater risk for alcohol problems.
New research, the first of its kind, has found that the reverse relationship is also true: alcoholism has a negative effect on where someone lives.
Results are published in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research .
“Most studies have looked at the effects of neighborhood characteristics on alcohol use, and only a few have looked at alcohol dependence,” said Anne Buu, research investigator of psychiatry at the University of Michigan and corresponding author. “None have looked at these effects over a time span as long as 12 years; most cover only a one- or two-year time span. In addition, we looked at these relationships bidirectionally, that is, the effects of alcohol dependence on place of residence, and the long-term effects of neighborhood on alcohol dependence.”
“This type of research is quite innovative and reflects a growing interest in ‘macro-level' influences on alcohol-related outcomes,” said Ryan Trim, research psychologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. “Unlike the extensive research on individual- and family-level risk factors, studies examining the link between alcohol use and neighborhoods have only gained momentum in recent years. Since a large proportion of the risk for alcoholism is environmental – approximately 40 percent – it will be increasingly important for researchers and clinicians to have a better understanding of neighborhood-level influences on alcohol use.”
Researchers recruited 206 Caucasian men, with an average age of 33 years, through community and district court recruitment from a four-county-wide region. Alcohol-dependence diagnoses were established through semi-structured diagnostic interviews. Residential addresses were noted at baseline, and then at three-year intervals for a 12-year period. Census-tract variables were used to identify neighborhood characteristics.
Analysis indicates that alcoholism has long-term negative effects on place of residence, and vice versa. First, the more alcohol problems a man has, the more likely he is going to remain in – or migrate into – a disadvantaged neighborhood. Second, recovery from alcoholism is both protective against a downward social drift and favorable to improved social conditions. In addition, living in worse neighborhoods appears to have an adverse effect on alcoholic symptomatology over time.
In short, said Buu, the causal relationship between alcoholism and neighborhood social environment is a two-way instead of a one-way street. “Continuous alcohol involvement has long-term negative effects on place of residence,” she said. “In contrast, recovery from alcoholism is protective against downward social drift.”
Both Buu and Trim said that these findings have implications for women, even though they were not among the target study population.