TOPLINE

Remaining or becoming unpartnered in later life was associated with higher odds of alcohol abstinence among older adults and lower odds of hazardous and binge drinking among women, with no evidence that depressive symptoms or loneliness mediated these links, a longitudinal study found.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers analysed data from 5071 community-dwelling adults (age, 65-85 years; 53.6% women) participating in Gerontological Regional Database survey waves in Sweden and Finland from 2016 to 2021.
• Baseline marital status was assessed and categorised as partnered (married, cohabiting, or living apart together) or unpartnered (single, divorced, or widowed), and 5-year partnership transitions, if any, were also assessed.
• Alcohol use was assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption in 2021, categorising participants as abstinent (a score of 0), low risk (a score of 1-3), or hazardous (a score ≥ 4), with binge drinking defined as consuming six or more drinks per occasion at least monthly.
• The analysis was adjusted for sociodemographic variables, psychosocial factors (support, loneliness, and social contact), and health-related variables (depressive symptoms measured using the four-item Geriatric Depression Scale score ≥ 2, self-rated health, polypharmacy, and activities of daily living).
• Causal mediation analyses tested whether depressive symptoms and loneliness at follow-up mediated associations between marital transitions and alcohol use.

TAKEAWAY

• At baseline, unpartnered respondents were more likely to abstain than partnered respondents (adjusted relative risk ratio [aRRR], 1.39; 95% CI, 1.06-1.83 for divorced or single and aRRR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.14-1.91 for widowed).
• Between 2016 and 2021, remaining or becoming unpartnered was associated with higher odds of abstaining (aRRR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.16-1.68) but not with binge drinking.
• Unpartnered women had higher odds of abstinence (total effect [TE], 1.27 and 1.26) and lower odds of hazardous drinking (TE, 0.59 and 0.60) and binge drinking (TE, 0.44 and 0.49) across depression and loneliness models, respectively; however, unpartnered men showed higher odds of abstinence alone (TE, 1.61 and 1.53, respectively).
• No indirect effects via depressive symptoms or loneliness were observed in mediation analyses, suggesting that psychological distress did not mediate the association between marital transitions and alcohol use.

IN PRACTICE

"Our findings suggest that alcohol use among older adults in Western societies is predominantly a sociocultural embedded behaviour and alcohol is not a typical long-term coping strategy following marital loss," the authors wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Erika Boman, Åland University of Applied Sciences, Åland, Finland. It was published online on August 11, 2026, in Aging & Mental Health.

LIMITATIONS

The study was limited by the assessment of alcohol use only at follow-up in 2021, the capture of 5-year marital transitions solely as binary changes between two timepoints, self-reported measurements across all key variables, a likely healthy survivor effect with potential non-response selection bias, and the absence of data on race and ethnicity.

DISCLOSURES

The study was funded by the Waldemar von Frenckell Foundation, the Swedish Cultural Foundation, and Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet. The survey was supported by several regional foundations and the Government of Åland. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.