Pregnancy Problems Linked To Lower Drinking Age
A new study found that a lowered minimum drinking age could be linked to a higher rate of unplanned pregnancies and premature births.
Researchers of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the University of Georgia in Athens, looked at data from the late 1970s and 1980s when states did not have a uniform minimum drinking age.
They discovered a link between a lower legal drinking age of 18 and a higher rate of unplanned pregnancies in young women.
Additionally, they wrote in the Journal of Health Economics, the lowered minimum drinking age could be linked to a higher risk of premature birth and lower birthweight. The complications in unplanned pregnancies among younger women originate in their failure to seek proper prenatal care, researchers said.
"It is always possible that other factors besides drinking age laws are causing the effects we see, but we don’t see similar birth weight and prematurity effects for women over 21," researcher Tara Watson.
In the early 1970s, 29 states had a minimum drinking age of 18, 19 or 20. However, when an increased amount of drunk-driving related accidents were reported, states began to revise their drinking age laws.
In 1988, a federal law mandated that all states must have a minimum drinking age of 21. But many groups still advocate changes to lower the minimum age.
According to Reuters, last year the Amethyst Initiative, made up of a group of more than 100 US university presidents and chancellors, called for revisions to the minimum drinking age due to a prevalence of dangerous binge-drinking among college students.
Watson worked alongside Angela Fertig, of the University of Georgia in Athens, to study birth records and government data on alcohol use from 1978 to 1988. They noted that when the legal drinking age was 18, prenatal drinking among 18- to 20-year old women saw a 21-percent increase.
Additionally, they found a 6-percent increase in the odds of low birthweight and a 5-percent rise in the risk of preterm delivery.
"We find that the minimum drinking age law has important unintended benefits which should be considered before lowering the drinking age," Watson said.
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