People who drink heavily and frequently report significantly worse health habits. This is according to a new study from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. The researchers surveyed 7,884 members of the Kaiser Permanente Northwest integrated health plan in Oregon and Washington. They discovered that risky drinkers possess attitudes and health practices that may adversely affect their health over the long term. People who drink at dangerous levels were less likely to seek routine medical care than other categories of drinkers.
"The main finding here is that risky drinkers also engage in other behaviors – such as relieving stress with alcohol and cigarettes, not wearing seatbelts, unhealthy eating and not regularly seeing their doctors – that put their health at risk," said Carla Green, the lead author of the study and a senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.
"Physicians should not only be concerned about patients’ heavy drinking, but also these other health-related practices."
The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It is the first study to look at the relationship between drinking patterns and health while taking into account other factors that might influence that relationship. Those factors include diet, exercise, stress management, sleep practices, seat belt use, income, education and obesity, as well as feelings about seeing the doctor, skepticism toward medical care, and attitudes about one’s ability to influence their health.
"Our study found that men and women who drank the most had less collaborative relationships with their doctors and were more likely to dislike going to the doctor. They were also less confident they could change their own health-related practices and more likely to think health is a matter of good fortune," Green said.
