Age of alcohol purchase related to homicide and suicide rates especially in women

A legal drinking age of 18, not 21 in the US seems to put women, but not men, at a long-term higher risk for homicide and suicide, a new study finds.

A recent piece of US research by Richard Grucza et al in the US confirms the association with homicides., demonstrating that a higher risk of homicide and suicide persisted into adulthood among women born after 1960 who came from states that permitted under-21 drinking.

In prior short-term analyses, Grucza found that that both men and women raised in under-21 states engaged in higher rates of alcohol and drug use as adults, and had a higher rate of drunk-driving accidents, homicides and suicides.

In this new study, the authors set out to gauge the longer-term impact of drinking age laws on homicide and suicide, examining data on about 200,000 suicides and 130,000 homicides that took place in the United States between 1990 and 2004.

They found that in 38 out of 39 states, women who had matured when the legal drinking age was below 21 had a 15 percent higher risk of dying from homicide in 37 of those states that women who grew up being able to drink below the age of 21 had a 12 percent higher risk for suicide than women who matured when the legal drinking age was set at 21.

These trends stretched far into adulthood, and were not mirrored among men.

Grucza says it's hard to say why that happened but, "We can start by saying that it's well understood that suicide and homicide are very different phenomena for men and women, independent of drinking habits. And perhaps alcohol tips the dynamic. But at this point it's just speculation based on past literature. We don't have the specific data to ferret that out."

He speculates that female victims of homicide are most often killed by an acquaintance, often during episodes of alcohol-fueled domestic violence. Allowing men to begin drinking at a younger age might up the odds of that happening over time.
While the rationale for raising the age was to keep young people from drinking and driving, there wasn't a lot of thought about the long-term habit-formations that may be occurring when young people drink. One key to the trend may lie in alcohol's effects on the young brain (See Fergusson and Boden for alcohol use in adolescence)

Professor Jennie Connor, Head of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine commented on the report: “This study adds considerable weight to the evidence of long term harm from lower legal drinking/purchase ages. There is evidence from the US and from elsewhere that a lower drinking age or legal alcohol purchase age is associated with increased heavy drinking among young people and resulting harm. (See MEDline Plus and Science Media Centre for info)

Professor Connor co-authored a report published in June this year that concluded that, “The experience of intimate-partner aggression in a cross-section of households differs by gender and the involvement of alcohol, and ‘counts’ of aggressive acts in a population-based survey do not reflect the reality of gender differences. Heavy episodic drinking patterns are associated with more aggression involving alcohol within relationships, and alcohol involvement is associated with increased severity.“ Click here to see a media release)

These conclusions are based on a national survey of 18 to70-year-olds (using an electoral roll sample) that obtained self-reported alcohol consumption, partner’s alcohol consumption and details of the most severe partner aggression by the respondent and towards the respondent in the past 2 years. The mean scores for associated severity, anger and fear were analysed by gender and alcohol involvement. Multinomial models estimated associations of drinking patterns with aggression to and from the respondent. The response rate was 49% (n=1925).

Men and women reported similar prevalence of victimisation and perpetration of aggression (11-15%). Alcohol was involved in more than 25% of incidents, and reported more by women than by men, particularly male-only drinking when the respondent was the victim. Women reported greater severity, anger and fear with victimisation than men, and drinking was associated with greater reported severity.

Heavy episodic drinking by respondents was associated with a threefold increase in victimisation and doubling of perpetration of aggression involving alcohol. Heavy episodic drinking by either partner was also associated with drinking being involved in reported aggression.

Reference:
Connor, J. L., Kypri, K., Bell, M. L., & Cousins, K. (2011). Alcohol involvement in aggression between intimate partners in New Zealand: a national cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 1.