How much you drink may depend on how close you live to a bar, study says

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- Did you know how much you drink may depend on how close you live to a bar?

A study in the journal “Addiction” suggests a connection between where you hang your hat and how much you pour down the hatch.

Researchers in Finland studied 55,000 adults for seven years.

They found that a person who moved just six-tenths of a mile closer to a bar had a 17 percent higher chance of becoming a heavy drinker.

A heavy drinker was defined as consuming more than 10 ounces of distilled liquor a week for men and about seven ounces a week for women.

Among people who lived an average 400 feet from a watering hole, over nine percent were heavy drinkers. Those living farther away – about 1.5 miles from a bar – were about 7.5 percent heavy drinkers.

That pattern held true whether people moved closer to bars or had bars open closer to them.

The authors say their work doesn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship between alcohol abuse and a nearby bar, but they say the association is “notable.”