THURSDAY, Nov. 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Think of it as collateral damage: Millions of Americans say they have been harmed by a loved one's drug or alcohol use . One in 3 adults who responded to a new nationwide survey said they had suffered "secondhand harm" from another person's drinking.
And more than 1 in 10 said they had been harmed by a loved one's drug use. That's close to 160 million victims -- 113 million hurt by loved one's drinking and 46 million by their drug use, according to the survey published recently in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs . "There are more harms than people think," said study co-author William Kerr , of the Alcohol Research Group at the Emeryville, Calif.
-based Public Health Institute. "They affect families, relationships and communities." He said it makes sense that risky drinking and drug use have far-reaching consequences, but researchers only began looking at the secondhand harms of alcohol in recent years.
Less has been known about the damage done by a loved one's drug use. The new study is based on a survey of 7,800 U.S.
adults. They were questioned between September 2019 and April 2020, before the pandemic became a factor in Americans' substance use. People were asked if they had been harmed in any of several ways due to someone else's substance use.
In all, 34% of respondents said they had suffered secondhand harm from someone else's alcohol use. The harms ranged from marriage and family problems to financial fallout, assa.