Women who enter adulthood where the legal drinking age is 18 instead of 21 have a higher risk of homicide and suicide, according to a new study.
Study researchers followed Americans who turned 18 between 1967 and 1989, prior to the implementation of the national drinking age of 21 in 1984, HealthDay reports. The newer study also examined data on approximately 200,000 suicides and 130,000 homicides that took place in the United States between 1990 and 2004.
Authors found that in 38 out of 39 states, women who turned 18 when the legal drinking age was below 21 had a 15 percent higher risk of dying from homicide, according to HealthDay.
"We want to make sure people know all of the consequences of the [legal] drinking age," study lead author Richard Grucza told HealthDay. "Because while the rationale for raising the age was to keep young people from drinking and driving, there wasn't a lot of thought about the long-term habit-formations that may be occurring when young people drink."
Oddly enough, the trends discovered were not mirrored in men, HealthDay reports.
"As for the different findings concerning men and women, it's hard to say why that happened," Grucza told HealthDay. "We can start by saying that it's well understood that suicide and homicide are very different phenomena for men and women, independent of drinking habits. And perhaps alcohol tips the dynamic. But at this point it's just speculation based on past literature. We don't have the specific data to ferret that out."
Grucza estimated that upward of 600 suicides and 600 homicides have been prevented each year simply by heightening the national drinking age to 21, HealthDay reports.
