“These are healthy people with higher income, higher educational attainment, socially more active and are more likely to drink at harmful levels”, the authors write in the BMJ Open journal.
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The study concluded: “Generally speaking, people aged 50 or over ageing “successfully” in England are more at risk of drinking at harmful levels or of developing harmful drinking consumption patterns than those who fit less well into the paradigm of ageing “successfully”.
Based on the findings on more than 9000 responses, researchers have warned that harmful drinking is a “middle class phenomenon” which may be a hidden health and social problem in otherwise successful older people.
As part of the survey, participants were asked about their weekly alcohol consumption alongside a number of factors that may influence their drinking habits, including marital status, caring responsibilities, educational attainment, smoking status, diet, physical activity levels, loneliness and depression, self-reported health, employment status and social engagement. For men, those who lived alone and who were lonely had an increased risk, including men who were divorced or separated.
Caring responsibilities lowers the probability of being at higher risk among women, but religious belief does not – for either sex. According to the CDC, while binge drinking is most common among adults 18 to 24, 22.1 percent of adults age 45 to 64 said they had binge drank within the last month.
There was no direct correspondence between feelings of loneliness and depression and harmful drinking.
A report by the think tank 2020Health found that around eight million British adults drink more than is considered safe my experts, many of whom are middle class people who regularly drink wine with their evening meal.
Among men, these transition patterns were similar, except that caring responsibilities, loneliness, older age and lower income increased the likelihood of no longer drinking at risky levels by wave 2 of the survey.
In conclusion, you should probably party with your dad more.
“The NHS Health Check, available to everyone in England aged 40-74, includes an alcohol risk assessment and advice for those whose drinking is putting their health at risk”.
“Our findings suggest that harmful drinking in later life is more prevalent among people who exhibit a lifestyle associated with affluence and with a “successful” ageing process”, he added.
“Harmful drinking may then be a hidden health and social problem in otherwise successful older people”.
The new study looked at various factors that might impact harmful drinking levels amongst older people, with some surprising results. “Unless society starts to take this seriously and acknowledges the health problems and the cost to society which too much alcohol can cause, the situation will only get worse”.
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Play video “Aug 2014: Liver Disease Increase”. For women, breast cancer risk doubles.
