Is regular drinking in later life an indicator of good health? Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Clare HoldsworthNicola Shelton

Abstract

Older people who drink have been shown to have better health than those who do not. This might suggest that moderate drinking is beneficial for health, or, as considered here, that older people modify their drinking as their health deteriorates. The relationship between how often older adults drink and their health is considered for two heath states: self-rated health (SRH) and depressive symptoms. Data were analysed from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a prospective cohort study of older adults, using multilevel ordered logit analysis. The analysis involved 4741 participants present at wave 0, (1998/1999 and 2001), wave 4 (2008/2009) and wave 5 (2010/2011). The outcome measure was frequency of drinking in last year recorded at all three time points. Older adults with fair/poor SRH at the onset of the study drank less frequently compared with adults with good SRH (p<0.05). Drinking frequency declined over time for all health statuses, though respondents with both continual fair/poor SRH and declining SRH experienced a sharper reduction in the frequency of their drinking over time compared with older adults who remained in good SRH or whose health improved. The findings were similar for depression, though the as...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 18, 2018·International Journal of Epidemiology·Craig S KnottSteven Bell
Nov 1, 2018·Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health·Rosario OrtoláFernando Rodríguez-Artalejo
Oct 10, 2019·The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry·Dae Jong OhKi Woong Kim
Sep 3, 2020·Revista brasileira de psiquiatria : orgão oficial da Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria, Asociación Psiquiátrica de la América Latina·Vanessa P CorrêaIone J C Schneider
Nov 5, 2019·The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences·Ágnes SzabóDavid Newcombe
Aug 2, 2019·The American Journal of Medicine·Rosario OrtoláEsther Lopez-Garcia
Dec 7, 2018·Journal of the American Medical Directors Association·Gotaro KojimaKate Walters

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