File photo of people drinking at a bar. (credit: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images)
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ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) — Drink up.
A new study finds that people who live close to a bar tend to drink more.
A group of Finnish researchers collected data from nearly 55,000 participants from 2000 to 2009. The study found that heavy and extreme drinking occurred when people lived about a half-mile away from the bar.
The Boston Globe reports that the chances a person will drink too much jumped to 17 percent living near a bar.
Conversely, the farther away a participant was from the bar, the less likely they would be heavy drinkers.
“Moving place of residence close to, or far from, a bar appears to be associated with a small corresponding increase or decrease in risky alcohol behavior,” the study states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that heavy drinking can lead to liver disease and cancer.
The study appears in the journal Addiction.
