Understanding older adults' attitudes and beliefs about drinking: perspectives of residents in congregate living

Abstract

Drinking motives may change as adults age, yet few studies in the United States of America have examined older adults' perspectives about their own drinking habits. The current study explored beliefs and attitudes of alcohol use of retired adults residing in a congregate care setting in the Baltimore/Washington DC metro area. Individual interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of 11 individuals who participated in a daily diary study on alcohol use among older adults. All participants in the study were identified as regular drinkers, meaning they had an alcoholic beverage on at least six of the eight days prior to screening. The participants' mean age was 81.5 years with a majority being women (54.5%). Older adults reported alcohol use as a long-term habit or routine. Participants also recognised that their alcohol use was influenced by peer drinking and by the availability of alcohol at the congregate care setting. Participants normalised their drinking as a form of routine socialisation carried from earlier life stages. Participants did not report reactive drinking, suggesting that older drinkers do not see their alcohol use as driven by specific reactions to life stresses or losses associated with ageing. The study also indicates that drinking may provide older adults in congregate care with a sense of continuity from before retirement and preserve their identity and autonomy.

Alcohol and older people: A systematic review of barriers, facilitators and context of drinking in older people and implications for intervention design

“…Twelve studies included both male and female participants, one predominantly male participants [ 11 ], and one did not report gender [ 12 ]. Two studies were conducted in immigrant populations in Canada [ 12 , 13 ], one study was in an all-Caucasian population [ 14 ], two included participants from both white and black and minority ethnic (BME) groups [ 15 , 16 ] and one included predominantly white and Hispanic populations [ 17 ]. Ethnicity was not reported in other studies.…”

“…Information about amount and distribution of drinking patterns of participants was limited in some studies. Two studies specifically stated inclusion of only current or regular drinkers [ 13 , 14 ]. Two studies did not report details of alcohol consumption of participants [ 12 , 16 ].…”

“…People tended to adopt or share drinking habits of their partner, family members or peers [ 10 , 14 , 16 , 20 ]. Drinking was often identified as a habit or as part of a regular routine such as a drink in the evening [ 10 , 14 , 19 ]. ‘Alcohol was also used as a marker to separate ‘work time’ from ‘leisure time’ or other habitual times to drink, e.g.…”

“…when cooking a meal’ [ 19 ], or related to other ‘rituals, moods and environments’ [ 20 ]. One study linked alcohol use in older people to ‘maintaining routines and identity in the context of role loss and functional limitations’ [ 14 ].…”

Reduced impact of alcohol use on next-day tiredness in older relative to younger adults: A role for sleep duration.

“…Relatedly, a proposed mechanism for age differences in the association between alcohol use and sleep duration are age differences in the context of alcohol use (public versus private) and age differences in the tendency to maintain routines. Data were not available to test this hypothesis and, while it is in line with previous research (Burruss et al, 2015; Kramer et al, 1999; Wells et al, 2005), future work will be required to test this possibility.…”