Longitudinal patterns and predictors of alcohol consumption in the United States.

OBJECTIVES We examined demographic predictors of longitudinal patterns in alcohol consumption. METHODS We used mixed-effects models to describe individual alcohol consumption and change in consumption with age, as well as the associations between consumption and birth year, national alcohol consumption, and demographic factors, among 14 105 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study. RESULTS Alcohol consumption declined with increasing age, and individual consumption mirrored national consumption. Higher consumption was associated with male gender, being White, being married, having a higher educational level, having a higher income, being employed, and being a smoker. Faster age-related decline in consumption was associated with earlier cohorts, being male, being married, having a lower educational level, and being a smoker. CONCLUSIONS Compared with alcohol consumption among earlier cohorts, that among recent cohorts declined more slowly with increasing age, suggesting that negative health effects of alcohol could increase in the future.

[1]  K. Fillmore.  Women's drinking across the adult life course as compared to men's. , 1987, British journal of addiction.

[2]  D. Cahalan,et al.  American drinking practices: A national study of drinking behavior and attitudes. , 1970 .

[3]  A. H. Norris,et al.  Aging and ethanol metabolism , 1977, Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.

[4]  P. Graham,et al.  Primary versus proxy respondents: comparability of questionnaire data on alcohol consumption. , 1993, American journal of epidemiology.

[5]  Substance Use by Older Adults: Estimates of Future Impact on the Treatment System. , 2002 .

[6]  Mika Kivimäki,et al.  Alcohol intake and sickness absence: a curvilinear relation. , 2002, American journal of epidemiology.

[7]  M. Dufour,et al.  Alcohol and the elderly. , 1992, Clinics in geriatric medicine.

[8]  W. Kannel,et al.  Drinking and its relation to smoking, BP, blood lipids, and uric acid. The Framingham study. , 1983, Archives of internal medicine.

[9]  R. Glynn,et al.  Aging and generational effects on drinking behaviors in men: results from the normative aging study. , 1985, American journal of public health.

[10]  T. Hu,et al.  Alcohol drinking patterns and medical care use in an HMO setting , 2000, Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research.

[11]  Robert F Schoeni,et al.  Recent trends in disability and functioning among older adults in the United States: a systematic review. , 2002, JAMA.

[12]  R. Hays,et al.  A new paradigm for alcohol use in older persons. , 1999, Medical care.

[13]  C. Aldwin,et al.  Age, cohort and period effects on alcohol consumption and problem drinking: findings from the Normative Aging Study. , 1998, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[14]  J. Gill.  Hierarchical Linear Models , 2005 .

[15]  C. Lieber,et al.  High blood alcohol levels in women. The role of decreased gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity and first-pass metabolism. , 1990, The New England journal of medicine.

[16]  E. V. Leino,et al.  Determinants of life-course variation in the frequency of alcohol consumption: meta-analysis of studies from the collaborative alcohol-related longitudinal project. , 1996, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[17]  G. Barnes.  Alcohol Use Among Older Persons: Findings from a Western New York State General Population Survey , 1979 .

[18]  L. Chambless,et al.  Alcohol consumption with age: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, 1987-1995. , 2001, American journal of epidemiology.

[19]  F. Blow,et al.  Use and Misuse of Alcohol Among Older Women , 2002, Alcohol research & health : the journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

[20]  R. Hays,et al.  Beyond alcoholism: identifying older, at-risk drinkers in primary care. , 2002, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[21]  J. Rehm,et al.  On the emerging paradigm of drinking patterns and their social and health consequences. , 1996, Addiction.

[22]  L. Midanik,et al.  The demographic distribution of US drinking patterns in 1990: description and trends from 1984. , 1994, American journal of public health.

[23]  D. Makuc,et al.  Statistical issues in analyzing the NHANES I Epidemiologic Followup Study. Series 2: Data evaluation and methods research. , 1994, Vital and health statistics. Series 2, Data evaluation and methods research.

[24]  J. Goodwin,et al.  Alcohol Intake in the Healthy Elderly , 1990, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[25]  E. Vartiainen,et al.  Alcohol intake and subjective health. , 1996, American journal of epidemiology.

[26]  R. Hays,et al.  Drinking Habits Among Older Persons: Findings from the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow‐up Study (1982–84) , 1999 .

[27]  Z. Yuan,et al.  Alcohol-related hospitalizations of elderly people. Prevalence and geographic variation in the United States. , 1993, JAMA.

[28]  A. Jones,et al.  Age-related differences in blood ethanol parameters and subjective feelings of intoxication in healthy men. , 1985, Alcohol and alcoholism.

[29]  J. Feldman,et al.  Plan and operation of the NHANES I Epidemiologic Followup Study, 1992. , 1997, Vital and health statistics. Ser. 1, Programs and collection procedures.

[30]  J. Ware,et al.  Random-effects models for longitudinal data. , 1982, Biometrics.

[31]  A. Meyers,et al.  Evidence for Cohort or Generational Differences in the Drinking Behavior of Older Adults , 1982, International journal of aging & human development.

[32]  J. Concato,et al.  The Health-Related Effects of Alcohol Use in Older Persons: A Systematic Review , 2002, Substance abuse.

[33]  E. Hartka,et al.  A meta-analysis of life course variation in drinking. , 1991, British journal of addiction.

[34]  K. Fillmore.  Prevalence, incidence and chronicity of drinking patterns and problems among men as a function of age: a longitudinal and cohort analysis. , 1987, British journal of addiction.

[35]  I. White.  The level of alcohol consumption at which all-cause mortality is least. , 1999, Journal of clinical epidemiology.

[36]  G. D. Williams,et al.  Changes in levels of alcohol consumption: United States, 1983-1988. , 1992, British journal of addiction.

[37]  R. Caetano,et al.  Changes in drinking patterns among whites, blacks and Hispanics, 1984-1992. , 1995, Journal of studies on alcohol.