SynthesisAddiction (Abingdon, England)2021
A systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between solitary drinking and alcohol problems in adults.
Synthesis in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between solitary drinking and alcohol problems in adults.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Pooled it
- Alcohol's acute effects on emotion recognition and empathy in heavy-drinking young adults.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- The impact of alcohol consumption on implicit racial bias.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2024Trial
- A Daily Diary Study of Positive Experiences and Alcohol Use Among Non-Abstaining Adults Aged 50+ Years.Journal of aging and health · 2026Article
- Testing the robustness of daily associations of affect with alcohol and cannabis use.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2026Article
- Sociability, drinking motives, and alcohol use problems among young adults with and without childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Geographical characteristics and other factors associated with alcohol-related fatal fires in Ireland 2014 - 2021.HRB open research · 2026Article
- Older adult solitary drinking: associations with subjective and objective cognitive functioning.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Influence of Drinking Context and Age of Onset on Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Motivations Among Uruguayan Adults.Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2024Article
- Article
- Contextual and psychosocial factors influencing drug reward in humans: The importance of non-drug reinforcement.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2024Review
- Event-level risk for negative alcohol consequences in emerging adults: The role of affect, motivation, and context.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2024Article
- Effects of social drinking context on subjective effects, affect, and next-day appraisals in the natural environment.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2024Article
- Exploring the relationship between solitary drinking and living without other adults on alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Article
- FARESHARE: An open-source apparatus for assessing drinking microstructure in socially housed rats.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2024Article
- A Reexamination of Drinking Motives in Young Adults: The Development and Initial Validation of the Young Adult Alcohol Motives Scale.Assessment · 2023Article
- Dynamic relations among simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use, subjective responses, and problem drinking during naturally occurring drinking episodes.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Article
- Associations of state and trait empathy with daily alcohol use.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2023Article
- Article
- College students' virtual and in-person drinking contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsSolitary drinking in adolescents and young adults is associated with greater risk for alcohol problems, but it is unclear whether this association exists in older demographics. The current paper is the first meta-analysis and systematic review, to our knowledge, to determine whether adult solitary drinking is associated with greater risk for alcohol problems.
methodsPsychINFO, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched following a pre-registered International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) protocol (CRD42019147075) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. Following the methodology used in our recent systematic review and meta-analysis on adolescent/young adult solitary drinking, we systematically reviewed solitary drinking measures/definitions, prevalence rates and associated demographic variables in adults. We then meta-analyzed (using random-effects models) associations between adult solitary drinking and alcohol use/problems, negative affect and negative/positive reinforcement-related variables (e.g. drinking to cope or for enhancement).
resultsSolitary drinking was defined as drinking while physically alone in nearly all studies, but measures varied. Prevalence rates were generally in the 30-40% range, with some exceptions. In general, males were more likely than females to report drinking alone, and married individuals were less likely than unmarried individuals to report drinking alone; racial/ethnic differences were mixed. Meta-analytical results showed significant effects for the associations between solitary drinking and the following factors: alcohol consumption, r = 0.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.18, 0.33, k = 15, I
conclusionsSolitary drinking appears to have a small positive association with alcohol problems.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.