Social engagement, setting and alcohol use among a sample of older Australians

Abstract

The harms associated with risky alcohol consumption have long been researched and recognised in the health field. However, little available research has focused on older people or extended analysis of alcohol use by this segment of the population beyond a biomedical perspective. With the rapid ageing of the global population, research that investigates alcohol use among older people from a social perspective is important. This article reports on research with a group of older women and men, to identify and explain factors that influence alcohol consumption. In-depth interviews were conducted in Perth, Western Australia with 20 men and 22 women aged 65-74 years who were living in either private residences or retirement villages. The study findings indicated that alcohol use was linked with social engagement in activities across both settings, and that moderate alcohol use appeared to serve an important function as a 'social lubricant'. The major facilitating factors for alcohol use included the frequency of opportunities for social engagement and access to a ready-made social group in retirement villages. The major constraining factor across both settings was driving. Interestingly, health was not viewed as a major facilitating or constraining factor for alcohol consumption. Conclusions from the research were that alcohol serves an important role in enhancing social engagement, and there appear to be important associations between residential setting and alcohol use.

#WaysToRelax: developing an online alcohol-related health promotion animation for people aged 55 and older

“…In light of other research that reiterates that people aged 55 and older use alcohol to manage stress and relax 1,11 , and are concerned about the impacts of habitual use 1 , our findings provided a strong justification to focus our health promotion efforts on alternative ways of managing stress and relaxing as a way of shifting unwanted habits. This is also relevant given the potential increases in free time and reduced responsibilities that can accompany retirement and other lifestyle changes among older adults.…”

Prescribing or dispensing medication represents the best opportunity for GPs and pharmacists to engage older people in alcohol-related clinical conversations

“…This finding may also provide one possible explanation for the gender disparity in relation to changes in consumption amongst the sample over the previous 10 years, with a greater proportion of women indicating they were now drinking more frequently and larger quantities. Similar gender patterns in relation to frequency of consumption were found in a qualitative study of ‘young old’ (65–74 years) West Australian drinkers . While more research is needed to help explain this apparent gender anomaly, the current results have significant practice implications for primary health care professionals who are working with older people, in terms of engaging older people in discussions about the potential health benefits (and risks) associated with moderate alcohol use.…”

Uživanje alkohola med starostniki v domačem okolju: rezultati presejalnega testa SMAST-G

“…Odvisnost od alkohola je kot globalni problem z obsežnimi posledicami leta 1990 predstavljal osmi vzrok smrti in invalidnosti, leta 2010 je bil na petem mestu s 5,9 % vseh vzrokov smrti in zelo visokimi stroški zdravljenja (Dare, et al, 2014;Isted, et al, 2015). V Sloveniji je bilo v letu 2014 zaradi z alkoholom povezanih vzrokov 814 smrti, od tega je 55,6 % oseb umrlo pred dopolnjenim 65. letom starosti.…”

“…V tej raziskavi obravnavani udeleženci so potrdili socialno funkcijo alkohola v smislu sproščenega vključevanja, sodelovanja in povezovanja med starostniki v avstralskem okolju. Rezultati te avstralske raziskave torej kažejo na pomemben učinek alkohola za zmanjšanje čustvenih napetosti ter blaženja žalosti in osamljenosti starostnikov (Dare, et al, 2014).…”