A new study from the National Institute of Health has found a correlation between amount of education attained and alcohol dependency. The study, published last year in Molecular Psychiatry, discovered that individuals with greater educational attainment had less risk of alcohol dependency.
The study used randomly-selected genetic data sets to look at an individual’s level of education and relationship with alcohol. Researchers found that those with an additional 3.61 years of schooling had 50% reduced chance of alcohol dependency.
Those with higher educational attainment also had a reduced risk of binge drinking and memory loss due to drinking.
Interestingly enough, individuals with higher amounts of education were more likely to consume alcohol during meals and were more likely to drink beverages with a moderate amount of alcohol, like wine.
The study cautioned that the individuals tested were only from English-speaking countries, and so cultural differences could affect this pattern also.
But study author Dr. Falk Lohoff remained positive: “The possible effect of educational attainment on drinking that we show in this study, suggests that increasing educational attainment may be a useful target for prevention programs against problematic alcohol use, alcohol dependence and their consequences.”
Read more about this study at ScienceDaily. And if you’re trying to recover from your own alcohol dependency, try In The Rooms.
1 Comment
This is quite an interesting read however I would be interested in finding out also the correlation between higher education and substance abuse. I earned my degree and even though alcohol was around and an active part in some of my peers lives, it seemed to be other substances that was the main factor in there downfalls.