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A Longitudinal Study of Alcohol Consumption and Functional Disability in a Community Sample of Older People
Author(s) -
Dent Owen F.,
Grayson David A.,
Waite Louise M.,
Cullen John S.,
Creasey Helen,
Bennett Hayley P.,
Casey Barney J.,
Broe G. Anthony
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2000.tb00233.x
Subject(s) - medicine , logistic regression , environmental health , odds ratio , alcohol consumption , longitudinal study , hazardous waste , odds , gerontology , alcohol , demography , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , pathology , biology , sociology
Objective : To examine the association between alcohol consumption and incident functional disability in community‐living older people after adjustment for other risk factors. Method : Randomly sampled community‐living people aged 75 years and older from the inner western suburbs of Sydney underwent a clinical interview and medical examination by a physician experienced in geriatric medicine. This was repeated three years later. The examination included an assessment of functional disability and chronic systemic and neurodegenerative illnesses and impairments. Self‐reported alcohol consumption was recorded. The relationship between alcohol consumption and incident disability was examined by logistic regression analysis. Results : Cross‐sectional analysis at the first wave showed that those who did not drink were more likely to be disabled than drinkers (39.3% and 30.4% respectively, p = 0.032). Although 11.3% were drinking at hazardous or harmful levels there was no concurrent association between disability and hazardous/harmful drinking. Incident disability between waves did not differ between non‐drinkers at the first wave and those who drank at non‐hazardous/harmful levels (35.3% and 29.3% disabled respectively, p=0.306). However 80% of those who drank at hazardous/harmful levels experienced incident disability as compared with 32.5% among non‐drinkers and non‐hazardous/harmful drinkers combined (p<0.001). Logistic regression showed that, among the risk factors examined, hazardous/harmful consumption had by far the strongest effect with an adjusted odds ratio of 12.9 (95% CI 3.1–53.9). Conclusion : Alcohol consumption at defined hazardous/harmful levels is a major independent risk factor for incident functional disability in older people.