Premature death more likely in areas with lots of alcohol outlets

TORONTO, Dec. 23 (UPI) — There are literally thousands of books filled with thousands of pieces of advice on how to avoid premature death — eat more brussels sprouts, up your omega-3 fatty acid, wear a bike helmet. Also, avoid neighborhoods with lots of check-cashing stores and alcohol outlets.

According to a new study by researchers at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, ready access to cash and alcohol makes for poor psychological and physical health. The study — the first to look specifically at the correlation between the concentration of check-cashing stores and premature death — found that among Toronto’s 140 neighborhoods men were 1.25 times more likely to suffer a premature death in places populated by stores with check-for-cash services. Men were found to be a 1.36 times greater risk of premature death with surrounded by a higher concentration of alcohol outlets including bars and liquor stores.

Doctors Flora Matheson and Joel Ray, public health experts at St. Michael’s Center for Research on Inner City Health, say the research suggests additional banking services and addiction help is needed in places — already plagued by poverty, crime, as well as drug and alcohol problems — where temptation abounds.

“Moreover, physicians, nurses, addiction counselors and social workers who help people with alcohol problems might use an individual’s neighborhood as an indicator of their risk for health decline and even recommend relocation to an area with few CCPs and alcohol outlets,” Ray, physician and researcher, said in a press release. “Residential relocation has been associated with a greater cessation of injection drug use.”

Plenty of research has looked at the correlation between socioeconomic disadvantages and mental and physical health, but this latest study accounts for factors like poverty and crime — suggesting the availability of cash and alcohol alone serves to accentuate underlying issues and promote the kind of unhealthy habits that leads to premature death.

The new study was published this month in the journal BMJ Open.