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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Alcohol use in retirement communities | | Author(s) | Wendy L Adams |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 44, no 9, September 1996 |
| Pages | pp 1082-1085 |
| Keywords | Alcoholic beverages ; Alcoholism ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Retirement communities ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Anecdotal reports and two previous studies suggest that retirement communities have a particularly high prevalence of heavy drinking. This cross-sectional study of retirement communities in suburban Milwaukee, WI, aimed to verify or refute this finding, and to identify characteristics associated with heavy drinking in retirement communities. The questionnaire used questions adapted from the Khavari and CAGE questionnaires to screen for alcohol abuse. 317 of 454 independent residents completed and returned the questionnaire (70% response). Mean age of respondents was 83 ± 6 years; 77% female. 47% used some alcohol, 15% had 1-6 drinks a week, and 8% had 7 or more drinks per week. Only two people screened positive on the CAGE questionnaire for abusive drinking. Most had decreased alcohol use since moving to the community. Male sex, socialisation, lack of religious affiliation, and smoking were factors significantly linked with increasing alcohol use. In contrast to previous studies, heavy and abusive drinking were uncommon on the author's criteria, perhaps because of the older age and female predominance of the sample. Drinking appears to be associated with more social contacts and possibly, better health status. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-970812209 A |
| Classmark | YPP: ETA: F: ROA: 3F: 7T |
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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