Marriage and reductions in men's alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use

Abstract

Background Psychoactive substance use is lower among married compared to divorced or unmarried men; yet, the nature of this effect remains unclear because becoming and staying married is potentially confounded with substance-related background familial and individual factors, like parental divorce and personality. The authors investigated the associations between marital status and substance use; how substance use changed across the transition to marriage; and whether marriage effects were likely to be causal. Method The sample included 1790 adults from male–male twin pairs from a population-based registry. Measures of marital status and alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use came from Life History Calendars. Data were analyzed using regression, co-twin comparison, and within-person models. The latter models are tools for quasi-causal inference that control for familial and individual-level confounders. Results Married men used less alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis than men who were divorced/separated or single. In analyses of substance use across the transition to marriage, men reduced their alcohol and cannabis use both before and after marriage, but their tobacco use only after marriage. These effects were largely robust in co-twin and within-person analyses. Conclusions Marriage was associated with substantial reductions in substance use compared to being divorced/separated or single, and these reductions began prior to marriage. The co-twin comparison and within-person models ruled out the alternative explanation that marriage effects were due to confounding background familial and individual factors. These results provide strong evidence that the social role expectations associated with marriage reduce psychoactive substance use.

Happy, healthy, and wedded? How the transition to marriage affects mental and physical health.

“…Role socialization theory would suggest that the months preceding marriage-the time point at which the new role officially takes effect-could be an especially acute time in which to change specific habits and behaviors to better align with one's conceptualization of proper spousal behavior. While one could reasonably infer that additional benefits to general health might occur as the couple continues to live together (Salvatore et al, 2019), sharing resources and growing more similar in their habits, the present study did not demonstrate this postmarriage effect, suggesting such benefits may require more time to manifest-or may have already taken place during the engagement period. Indeed, the protective effect of marriage in terms of drinking may exist primarily at the extreme end of the behavior, with marriage possibly reducing the likelihood of disordered drinking (Kendler et al, 2016).…”

Age and Sex-Related Associations between Marital Status, Physical Activity and TV Time

“…Recent studies investigating health influence of marital status revealed that married adults have lower morbidity, mortality risks, mental disorders, and suicide risk than unmarried people [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. According to a US population-based study, marriage was associated with reducing substance use, such as tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis, compared to single and divorced/separated men [ 9 ]. In another study, Kim et al found that living without a partner results in lower odds of smoking and drinking, while blood pressure and glycohemoglobin are lower in married people [ 7 ].…”

Being a caregiver in the palliative care unit in the pandemic: Who can do it better?

“…However, caregivers who smoked both had more knowledge and were more confident in the measures. This situation may be the result of that pandemic is caused by a viral agent that infects the respiratory tract and that smokers are aware of the danger about themselves (17).…”