Suchergebnisse

Older adults are at significant risk of harm from alcohol use but there is no consensus as to the general patterns and prevalence of drinking in this population, nor how such trends might differ between countries. A collaboration of international researchers harmonised alcohol use data from government-funded studies of ageing to investigate drinking patterns in older adults from nine countries around the world: United States, England, China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation, South Africa, and New Zealand. The results show substantial differences across countries in rates of abstinence, frequency of alcohol use, quantity consumed on a typical day, and rates of infrequent and frequent heavy drinking. Substantial gender differences in drinking patterns were evident both between and within countries. These findings suggest that drinking is common in older adult populations in most countries, that typical daily drinking amounts differ substantially between countries but that frequent heavy drinking is rare.