This study examines the alcohol drinking patterns and symptoms of adults in the United States to explore characteristics of older adults’ alcohol consumption and symptoms and to compare those relative to younger adults. Because older adults assume different roles than younger adults, the study also examined the associations between retirement and marital status with drinking behavior to determine if the roles of retirement or widowhood that are common to older adults are related to
drinking behavior and the presence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The strength of this study is the use of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol Related Conditions, a national survey of over 43,000 non-institutionalized United States of America residents that provides external validity that is not present in other studies of older adult drinking that relied on clinical or community-based samples.
This study is based on the theoretical perspectives of biological effects of aging, and the life course perspective combined with role theory. These theoretical perspectives are used to develop research questions, and the life course perspective and role theory combination was tested when looking at the associations of the roles of marital status and retirement with drinking.
Key findings about alcohol consumption patterns are that while people tend to drink less with age, those with AUDs drink more as they grow older. The next important finding is that AUDs present similarly in older and younger adults with only minor differences. Surprisingly, and contrary to what many expect, the role of widowhood is associated with less total drinking and less binge drinking. Although the role of retirement is associated with less overall drinking, it appears to be associated with more binge drinking, particularly for women.