(NewsNation) — Want to keep your marriage happy and live a longer life? Split that bottle of wine with your spouse, suggests a new study.
“Spouses with concordant (similar) drinking behaviors often report better quality marriages and are married longer compared with those who report discordant drinking behaviors,” the study concludes.
It also noted that couples who drank at generally the same level survived longer than couples where one partner drinks and the other does not.
The study published in The Gerontologist looked at the drinking habits of 4,656 married opposite-sex couples over 20 years (1996 – 2016).
As for the amount of alcohol consumed, the study says less is better – to a point.
“Light drinking predicted better survival rates among individuals and their partners compared with abstaining and heavy drinking,” the authors wrote.
The new research aligns with a 2007 study from the American Psychological Association. It concluded that “discordant patterns of alcohol use were related to lower levels of marital satisfaction.”
That study also warned that misaligned drinking – especially heavy drinking by one spouse – could “lead to violence and the end of a marriage.”