Harms from a partner’s drinking: an international study on adverse effects and reduced quality of life for women

ABSTRACT

Background: Partners of heavy drinking individuals can be detrimentally affected as a result of their partner’s drinking.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the proportion of heterosexual intimate partner relationships with a heavy drinking male that resulted in reported alcohol-related harm and to investigate the impact of this on well-being in 9 countries.

Methods: This study used survey data from the Gender and Alcohol’s Harm to Others (GENAHTO) Project on Alcohol’s Harm to Others in 9 countries (10,613 female respondents, 7,091 with intimate live-in partners). Respondents were asked if their partners drinking had negatively affected them as well as questions on depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with life.

Results: The proportion of partnered respondents that reported having a harmful heavy drinking partner varied across countries, from 4% in Nigeria and the US to 33% in Vietnam. The most consistent correlate of experiencing harm was being oneself a heavy episodic drinker, most likely as a proxy measure for the acceptability of alcohol consumption in social circles. Women with a harmful heavy drinking partner reported significantly lower mean satisfaction with life than those with a partner that did not drink heavily.

Conclusions: Harms to women from heavy drinking intimate partners appear across a range of subgroups and impact on a wide range of women, at least demographically speaking. Women living with a heavy drinking spouse experience higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms and lower satisfaction with life.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol-related harm
• intimate partner
• spouse
• cultural context

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The study leaders for data sets used in this report are: Australia: Robin Room and Anne-Marie Laslett, the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University; Thailand: Orratai Waleewong and Jintana Jankhotkaew, International Health Policy Program; Vietnam: Hanh T.M. Hoang, Health Strategy and Policy Institute; Chile: Ramon Florenzano, Universidad del Desarrollo; Sri Lanka: Siri Hettige, University of Colombo; Nigeria: Isidore Obot, University of Uyo and Akanidomo Ibanga, Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA) and UNODC; Lao PDR: Latsamy Siengsounthe, National Institute of Public Health; India: Vivek Benegal and Girish Rao, Centre for Addiction Medicine and Centre for Public Health, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore. Dag Rekve led WHO’s coordination of the WHO/ThaiHealth Collaborative Study. Ireland: Ann Hope, Trinity College; United States: Thomas Greenfield and Katherine Karriker-Jaffe, Public Health Institute, Alcohol Research Group. Finally, we would like to thank the thousands of participants who gave their time to this study. Opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of NIAAA, the National Institutes of Health, the WHO, and other sponsoring institutions.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) Project 1065610 “Alcohol’s harm to others: a cross-national study,” the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), an independent, Australian non-governmental organization, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA); (Grants R01 AA023870, R01 AA022791 and P50AA005595), and by national support in each participating country. Callinan’s salary is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE180100016). Laslett’s salary was funded by the NHRMC application 1090904 “Harm to children from others’ drinking.”