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Why There Are No Seniors In Beer Ads

To determine trends in drinking patterns of men and women aged 60 and older, researchers analyzed five years of alcohol consumption data from the National Health Institute Surveys (NIHS). Previous studies of older drinkers measured the average number of drinks per day in order to examine the association of alcohol and health. In this study, quantity and frequency were measured separately so that researchers might find associations between these two separate measures and certain medical conditions. For example, two studies found that frequency of drinking was associated with the reduced risk of heart attacks and Type II diabetes even when quantity was low. Another study found a positive association between quantity (but not frequency) and blood pressure, while others have found a strong correlation between quantity and alcohol-related injuries.

In this recent study of 8,136 men and 8,710 women drinkers aged 60 years and older, researchers found strikingly different patterns with respect to quantity and frequency. In terms of quantity, both men and women participants showed a trend toward lower volume with increasing age. Heavy episodic drinking (the number of days in which five or more drinks were consumed) decreased with age. The proportions of men and women who drank less than 12 days per year increased with age, and those who drank 260–365 days per year also increased.

This study suggests that composite analysis (in this case looking at the combined effect of quantity and frequency rather than examining the individual effects of each) may result in missing important findings. Particular attention to the separate measures of frequency and quantity of drinking is necessary as these measures may suggest health-related associations with each unique to older individuals.

(Breslow, RA, and Smothers, B: Drinking patterns of older americans: National Health Interview Surveys, 1997–2001. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 65: 232–240, 2004.)

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