Alcohol consumption, type A behavior, and demographic variables. Results from the Normative Aging Study.

This study describes the relations of patterns of alcohol consumption with Type A behavior, age, retirement, marital status, and socioeconomic status among male participants in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study. In April 1984, 1,663 men completed form N of the Jenkins Activity Survey; in September 1982, 1,556 of these men had responded to a mailed survey of drinking behaviors. When age, marital status, socioeconomic status, and retirement status were controlled for, Type A score was virtually unrelated to the probability of being a nondrinker, having three or more drinks per day, problems with drinking, and periodic heavier drinking. Three other measures from the Jenkins Activity Survey--speed and impatience, hard-driving and competitive, and involvement--also had little association with these drinking behaviors. Moderate drinking was found to be strongly associated with higher socioeconomic status and being married. Results suggest that socioeconomic status and possibly marital status, but not Type A behavior and retirement, may influence the relation of drinking with the development of coronary heart disease.