ALCOHOL-USE IN RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES

OBJECTIVES: Anecdotal reports and two previous studies suggest that re tirement communities have a particularly high prevalence of heavy drin king. The objective of this study was to verify or refute this finding and to identify characteristics associated with heavy drinking in ret irement communities. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a mailed survey to gather information from three retirement communities in sub urban Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The questionnaire included alcohol use que stions adapted from the Khavari questionnaire and the CAGE questionnai re to screen for alcohol abuse. RESULTS: Three hundred seventeen of 45 4 independent residents of the retirement communities completed and re turned surveys for a response rate of 70%. Mean age of respondents was 83 +/- 6 years, 100% were white, 77% were female. Forty-seven percent used some alcohol, 15% had one to six drinks per week, 8% had seven o r more drinks per week. Only two people screened positive on the CAGE questionnaire for abusive drinking. The majority of drinkers had decre ased alcohol use since moving to the community. Male sex, socializatio n, lack of religious affiliation, and smoking were factors whose perce ntages increased significantly with increasing alcohol use. Although d rinkers were more likely to smoke cigarettes, no indicators suggested that they were less healthy than abstainers. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the advanced age of this population, regular alcohol use was prevalent. In contrast to previous reports from retirement communities, heavy and a busive drinking were uncommon by our measures, perhaps because of the older age and female predominance of the sample. Drinking appears to b e associated with more social contacts and, possibly, better health st atus.