Alcohol consumption by non-institutionalised elderly women: The EPIDOS study

The prevalence of alcohol use declines with age, but studies suggest that b etween 2% and 4% of the elderly population have a particulary high alcohol consumption. The objective of this study was to verify or refute this findi ng and identify clinical or social characteristics associated with alcohol consumption. We measured alcohol consumption by autoquestionnaire in 7575 women, aged 75 or older, recruited at five centers in France. The alcohol consumption was computed taking account of the number of beer, wine or liquor (or spirits) drinks consumed per day. The mean age of the respondents was 80 +/- 6 y. Forty percent used some alc ohol and 2.5% drank more than 30 grams per day. Smoking, good health status , higher socioeconomic status or single marital status were factors whose p ercentages increased significantly with increasing alcohol use. Despite the advanced age of this population, regular alcohol intake was pre valent but not heavy and abusive consumption drinking. Drinking appears to be associated with some medical or social characteristics and possibly with better health status.