Alcohol abstention among older adults: Reasons for abstaining and characteristics of abstainers

Analyses of a survey of 826 persons aged 65 and older identified three grou ps of respondents who consumed no alcohol during the previous 12 months: li fetime abstainers, infrequent drinkers, and former drinkers. The three grou ps differed significantly in endorsement of various reasons for abstaining, When the three groups of abstainers were compared to each other, to infreq uent drinkers and to other current drinkers on demographic and psychosocial variables, it was found that lifetime abstainers and infrequent drinkers w ho abstained during the previous 12 months tended to be older, less educate d and more religious than former and current drinkers. Current drinkers wer e more likely than all groups of abstainers to own their own home, had larg er social networks and engaged in more social activities. Former drinkers r eported more stress, greater depression, and lower sense of coherence than current drinkers ann other types of abstainers. These results demonstrate t he importance of distinguishing different types of abstainers, since the co nclusions regarding differences between drinkers and nondrinkers are likely to depend on the relative proportions of each type of abstainer in the sam ple.