Centre for Policy on Ageing



Community prevalence of alcohol use and concomitant use of medication — a source of possible risk in the elderly aged 75 and older?
Author(s)	Marje Aira, Sirpa Hartikainen, Raimo Sulkava
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 20, no 7, July 2005
Pages	pp 680-685
Source	http://www.interscience.wiley.com
Keywords	Alcoholic beverages ; Drugs ; At risk ; Living in the community ; Cross sectional surveys ; Finland.
Annotation	521 home-dwellers, participants in the Kuopio 75+ study in Finland, were interviewed about the quantity and frequency of use of alcoholic beverages, also of prescription and non-prescription medicine. 44% of participants used alcohol. Most alcohol drinkers used medications on a regular basis (86.9%) or as needed (87.8%), among them some medications known to have some potential interactions with alcohol. Elevated mean corpuscular volume was more widespread among alcohol drinkers than non-drinkers. Theoretical risks posed by alcohol use are not minimal in the oldest old, though the quantity of alcohol use is not considerable. Physicians and nurses should pay attention to chronic diseases and medications when counselling older people about alcohol consumption. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-050906213 A
Classmark	YPP: LLD: CA3: K4: 3KB: 76L
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.