The impact of stressful life events on excessive alcohol consumption in the French population: findings from the GAZEL cohort study.
BACKGROUND
Major life changes may play a causative role in health through lifestyle factors, such as alcohol. The objective was to examine the impact of stressful life events on heavy alcohol consumption among French adults.


METHODS
Trajectories of excessive alcohol consumption in 20,625 employees of the French national gas and electricity company for up to 5 years before and 5 years after an event, with annual measurements from 1992. We used repeated measures analysis of time series data indexed to events, employing generalized estimating equations.


RESULTS
For women, excessive alcohol use increased before important purchase (p = 0.021), children leaving home (p<0.001), and death of loved ones (p = 0.03), and decreased before widowhood (p = 0.015); in the year straddling the event, increased consumption was observed for important purchase (p = 0.018) and retirement (p = 0.002); at the time of the event, consumption decreased for marriage (p = 0.002), divorce, widowhood, and death of loved one (all p<0.001), and increased for retirement (p = 0.035). For men, heavy alcohol consumption increased in the years up to and surrounding the death of loved ones, retirement, and important purchase (all p<0.001), and decreased after (all p<0.001, except death of loved one: p = 0.006); at the time of the event, consumption decreased for all events except for children leaving home and retirement, where we observed an increase (all p<0.001). For women and men, heavy alcohol consumption decreased prior to marriage and divorce and increased after (all p<0.001, except for women and marriage: p = 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Stressful life events promote healthy and unhealthy alcohol consumption. Certain events impact alcohol intake temporarily while others have longer-term implications. Research should disentangle women's and men's distinct perceptions of events over time.
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Sara L
SL
Tamers
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Cassandra
C
Okechukwu
Mathematica Policy Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Alex A
AA
Bohl
INSERM, UMRS 1018, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, Population-based Cohorts Research Platform, Villejuif, France ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin, Versailles, France.
Alice
A
Guéguen
INSERM, UMRS 1018, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, Population-based Cohorts Research Platform, Villejuif, France ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin, Versailles, France.
Marcel
M
Goldberg
INSERM, UMRS 1018, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, Population-based Cohorts Research Platform, Villejuif, France ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin, Versailles, France.
Marie
M
Zins
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004243:Divorce / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012179:Retirement / Q000523:psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology