Centre for Policy on Ageing



Alcohol use amongst community-dwelling elderly people: a review of the literature
Author(s)	Nina Lakhani
Journal title	Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol 25, no 6, 1997
Pages	pp 1227-1232
Keywords	Alcoholism ; Living in the community ; Research Reviews ; Literature reviews.
Annotation	Alcohol use in older people is an increasingly important area to understand, yet little research has been undertaken. This paper contains a review of the literature, concentrating on alcohol use in older community-dwelling people. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are reviewed; their findings suggest high abstinence rates in older people living in the community, with consumption consistently associated negatively with increasing age and female gender. A summary of the descriptive literature is also included. The author concludes that it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the research to date, mainly due to varying terms of definition, and lack of validation of instruments when used in older age groups. There is a need for increased awareness about this topic amongst health professionals, and further research is needed on the alcohol use in minority ethnic and homeless older people.
Accession Number	CPA-980108204 A
Classmark	ETA: K4: 3A:6KC: 64A *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.