Drinking with your partner can make you live and love more. Plus, if the relationship is at an impasse, a splash of alcohol could be the answer, according to a study.
Drinking as a couple, beneficial for the relationship PHOTO Archive
The study, published in the journal The Gerontologist, found that partners who drink together and have habits associated with drinking, are more likely to live longer and have a healthier relationship, writes the New York Post.
Less conflict in the relationship
Kira Birditt, lead author of the study and professor and researcher at the University of Michigan, said that those couples who have similar patterns of alcohol use or
“drinking partnership”have less marital conflict and longer relationships.
However, she noted that there is no sure reason why researchers say that drinking with a spouse would be
“associated with a better
survival“.
“The purpose of this study was to analyze alcohol consumption in couples,
in (University's) Health and Retirement Study and Implications for Mortality,”
she said in a university news release.
The recent study looked at 4,566 married, different-sex couples who were over 50 years old. Birditt interviewed the couples every two years. The survey didn't ask people what type of alcohol they drank or how much, but rather if they drank with their partner sometime in the past three months.
“And I found, interestingly, that those
couples
in which bothyl
indicated that they had consumed alcohol in the past three months lived longer than other couples who either indicated that they did not drink or had discordant drinking patterns, where one drank and the other did not”Birditt said.
Encouraging alcohol consumption?
The researcher warned people that the results of her study should not be interpreted as a recommendation to drink more: sometimes what is good for relationships is not necessarily good for health.
However, it's important to note that couple partners influence each other's physical well-being—she said more research is needed to determine in what way.
“We do not know why consumption by both partners is associated with better survival.
I think the use of the other techniques that we use in our studies in terms of everyday experiences might help to better understand:
What is their daily life like?
Bthey together?
What are you doing then
when do I drink?”she stated.
There is also little information about the daily interpersonal processes that explain the link with alcohol consumption.
“Future research should assess the implications of couple drinking patterns for daily marital quality and daily health outcomes.”the researcher added.
Birditt's new study was a closer look at research he conducted in 2016, in which he surveyed 3,000 married couples over 33 years. The result of that study was also that those couples who drank together were happier than couples where only one partner was a heavy drinker.
