As it turns out, drinking heavily as a teen could have dire health consequences later in life. According to a new study from Rutgers and Virginia Commonwealth University, people who misuse alcohol as teens may struggle with drinking problems in their 20s and 30s. They may also be in “poorer health and less satisfied with their lives,” researchers say.
The study used data from questionnaires of 2,733 pairs of twins born in Finland in the late 1970s and defined adolescent alcohol misuse based on responses about “frequency of drunkenness, frequency of alcohol use and alcohol problems at ages 16, 17 and 18.5.” Researchers then looked at early midlife outcomes of “life satisfaction, physical symptoms, and self-rated health” when participants were around 34 years old.
“The longitudinal twin design is especially helpful for clarifying whether there are confounding family factors that predispose someone to both misuse alcohol in adolescence and experience poorer physical health and well-being later on in early midlife,” Jessica Salvatore, coauthor of the study and an associate professor and director of the Genes, Environments, and Neurodevelopment in Addictions Program at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, says in a press release. “This is because the twin design allows us to compare exposures and outcomes over time within the same family.”
Researchers concluded that adolescent alcohol misuse may indirectly impact long-term physical health and life satisfaction, and prevention strategies are needed to promote better long-term health.
“This study is unique in that it seeks to understand whether poor physical health consequences continue beyond your 20s,” Salvatore continues. “Our findings imply that drinking in adolescence and the consequences that follow are seen two decades later across multiple developmental stages.”