Alcohol Abuse Spikes Among Older Adults, Study Finds

Adults over the age of 50 are abusing alcohol and binge drinking at significantly higher rates than they did a decade ago, according to a study from New York University published Sunday in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

The study relied on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers looked at the habits of older adults between the years 2005 and 2014, and found that respondents reported the amounts of alcohol consumed over the previous month, year and the number of binge-drinking episodes.

Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men in a single occasion.

According to the authors' analysis, the rate of binge drinking among adults over the age of 50 increased 19.2 percent, and the rate of alcohol use disorders increased 23.3 percent over the study's span.

This is particularly troubling, the researchers said, because older people are particularly vulnerable to alcohol's negative effects.

“Older adults have particular vulnerabilities to alcohol due to physiological changes during aging, including increasing chronic disease burden and medication use,” said Benjamin Han, a geriatrician and health services researcher from New York University and lead author of the study.

“However, no recent studies have estimated trends in alcohol use, including binge alcohol use and alcohol use disorders among older adults,” he said.

Public health officials have recently been focusing on the issue of opioid and painkiller abuse, which played a large part in the recent national surge of drug overdose deaths. They were up to 50,000 in 2015.

The rise of opioid abuse and deaths was even a significant issue discussed in the 2016 presidential campaigns. But the increase and extent of alcohol-related deaths receives comparatively little attention.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 88,000 people died per year between 2006 and 2010 from alcohol-related causes, which included drunk-driving cases. Total alcohol-induced deaths, which only include cases of overdose and long-term health consequences, have also increased recently. In 1999, these deaths occurred in seven out of every 100,000 people — now that figure is 10.3 in every 100,000.

The authors of the study from NYU point out that older women are particularly at risk from the worrying tends in alcohol abuse.

“As females age, they tend to experience a larger impact of physiological changes in lean body mass compared to men,” said Han. “Thus, they may experience the adverse effects associated with consuming alcohol even in lower amounts.”

Joseph Palamar, an assistant professor of population health at NYU agreed. “The increase in binge drinking among older women is particularly alarming,” he added. "Both men and women are at risk for getting themselves into risky sexual situations while drinking, but women are at particularly high risk.”

The authors urge that alcohol abuse be recognized as a significant public health issue, and they want doctors to take a more active role in fighting this rising problem.

“Health care providers need to be made aware of this increasing trend of unhealthy alcohol use, particularly among older females, and ensure that screening for unhealthy alcohol use is part of regular medical care for this population,” said Han.

Beyond the risk of death, the CDC warns that excessive drinking leads to accidents, sexual assault and intimate partner violence, risky behaviors, mental health problems and a range of long-term health issues.

Photo credit: Bart Everson via Flickr