Alcohol consumption in a community sample of older people

Objective: To examine the prevalence and pattern of alcohol use among community-living elderly Australians. Methods: A survey was conducted of randomly selected non-institutionalised people aged 75 years and older living in the inner western suburbs of Sydney. Personal interviews by trained interviewers covered background demographic information and self-reported alcohol use. Results: 72% of men and 54% of women drank alcohol. The median usual daily volume of ethanol consumed by drinkers was 10 grams for men and 1.3 grams for women. However 11% of male drinkers and 6% of female drinkers consumed at defined hazardous or harmful levels. Conclusions and implications: Although a sizeable majority of these older people were either non-drinkers or very light drinkers, a small but important proportion drank in the hazardous to harmful range. Despite increasing evidence of the health benefits of alcohol consumption it remains important to be alert for potentially harmful alcohol use among older people.