More Outlets for Purchasing Alcohol
Linked to Male-to-Female Partner Violence
HOUSTON – (Nov. 3, 2008) – Male violence toward female partners is more likely in neighborhoods where there are more alcohol outlets such as liquor stores, bars and restaurants, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health Dallas Regional Campus.
Results will be published in the January issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
Researchers have known that the number of alcohol outlets in a given geographic area, referred to as alcohol-outlet density (AOD), is associated with a number of adverse health and social consequences. The new study examined the relationship between AOD and intimate partner violence (IPV) – both male-to-female partner violence (MFPV) and female-to-male partner violence (FMPV).
“We had detailed data on IPV in couples,” explained Christy McKinney, Ph.D., M.P.H., faculty associate in epidemiology at the UT School of Public Health Dallas Regional Campus. “By linking this information to AOD, we were ideally situated to address an understudied question using individual and couple-level data. We thought that greater alcohol availability could increase drinking which, in turn, could increase IPV.”
“Until now we did not know that community alcohol environments could be related to IPV,” said Paul J. Gruenewald, who has done related research and is senior research scientist at the Prevention Research Center. “With this study we get the first indication that, at least for men, greater availability of alcohol from bars and other on-premise drinking places may be linked to domestic violence. This is a troubling observation because drinking at bars, for example, has also been linked to greater rates of child abuse and other forms of violence in our communities.”
McKinney and her colleagues linked three sets of data: individual and couple-level socio-demographic and behavioral data from a 1995 national population-based sample of 1,597 couples; the 1990 U.S. Census for zip-code-level socio-demographic data; and the 1997 U.S. Department of Commerce economic census report for alcohol-outlet data. The researchers assessed the relationship between AOD and MFPV or FMPV, as well as the role of binge drinking or alcohol-related problems on that relationship.
“We found that as alcohol availability increases, the more likely it is that couples will experience MFPV,” said McKinney. Specifically, an increase of 10 alcohol outlets per 10,000 persons was associated with a 34-percent increased risk of MFPV.
“We also found that the relationship between alcohol availability and MFPV was stronger for couples who had alcohol-related problems than for couples with no such problems,” McKinney added. “However, because this study is cross-sectional and we asked about IPV and alcohol-related problems at the same time, we do not know which came first.”
McKinney hopes that this study, the first study to measure the relationship between alcohol availability and IPV with both individual and couple-level data, will help guide policy makers in their decisions about alcohol availability in neighborhoods.
Co-authors of the paper, “Alcohol availability and intimate partner violence among U.S. couples,” were: Raul Caetano, M.D., Ph.D., professor and regional dean; T. Robert Harris, Ph.D., associate professor; and senior research assistant Malembe S. Ebama of the UT School of Public Health Dallas Regional Campus. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.