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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Alcohol abuse, cognitive impairment and mortality among older people | | Author(s) | Vince Salazar Thomas, Kenneth J Rockwood |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 49, no 4, April 2001 |
| Pages | pp 415-420 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Alcoholism ; Cognitive impairment ; Death ; Canada. |
| Annotation | The clinical sample of 2,873 people aged 65+ from communities and long-term care institutions in the 1991 Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA), was tested for diagnosis of alcohol abuse and/or dementia. Prevalence of clinically detected definite alcohol abuse was 8.9%, and of questionable alcohol abuse 3.7%. Definite or questionable alcohol abuse was associated with a younger average age compared with no such abuse history, and men were significantly more likely than women to comprise definite and questionable diagnostic groups, as compared to the group without alcohol abuse. The occurrence of all types of dementia except probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) was higher in those with definite or questionable alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse in older people with dementia is not uncommon, occurring more frequently in men. It is associated with cognitive impairment and independently with short-term mortality. Screening by doctors for alcohol abuse can yield a group of older people at risk for adverse health outcomes. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020115210 A |
| Classmark | EA: ETA: E4: CW: 7S |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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