Binge drinking link to women with military partners investigated

The female partners of military personnel are twice as likely to binge drink than women with partners in the general population, new research suggests.

They are also more likely to be depressed, researchers from the King’s Centre for Military Health Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN) found.

Researchers collected data from 405 women in military families with at least one child, representing around a third of such families in the military population.

Some 7% of military partners met criteria for probable depression, compared to 3% of women from the general population.

Almost a tenth (9.7%) of military partners reported episodes of weekly, daily or almost daily binge drinking, compared to 8.9% from the general population.

After adjusting for other factors linked to alcohol behaviour, the researchers found that military partners were twice as likely to binge drink as women in the general population.

They also found that bingedrinking was significantly higher when families were separated for more than two months.

The researchers believe the behaviour may be a way to cope with the challenges experienced by military families, such as stress and separation caused by deployment and frequently moving location.

They are calling for more research into the causes of poor mental health and alcohol consumption and in developing prevention campaigns.

Lead researcher Dr Rachael Gribble, from the IOPPN, said: “While the majority of families cope well with the added pressures of military life, the additional challenges faced by military families may explain the additional mental health needs and higher rates of binge-drinking we found among military partners.

“More research is needed to help find out more about what contributes to depression and problematic drinking in this population.”

The research is published in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology.