Older Americans Drink Less Alcohol: Study

A study claims older Americans significantly cut down on drinking alcohol(specifically beer) and consequently take up wine as an alternative.

As compared to statistics of past, as Americans get older the graph pertaining to their habits of alcohol drinking tumbles down remarkably.

Researchers looked at the data collected over the time span of 50 years, after analyzing the data it was instituted that though the alcohol drinking trend fluctuated with age, mainly declined, yet no change was seen in the occurrence of alcohol-related disorders and illnesses such as alcoholic cardiomyopathy or alcoholic cirrhosis.

The data included about 8,000 records of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest population-based study of American adults. The data contributed extensively in helping the team of researchers arrive at a conclusion.

People born between 1900 and 1959 were a part of the Framingham’s study. Subjects born in late 20th century were interviewed regularly at the interval of every four years from 1948 to 2003.

The findings suggested the use of hard liquor remained invariable, older Americans with the process of aging laid hands on wine more often than on beer.

The proportions of individuals who define themselves as teetotaler have increased.

In fact generation of late 20th century drinks more generously than the people born in early 20th century.

Most important finding was that the alcohol consumption rate declined with age which led researchers to comprehend that Alcohol consumption pattern oscillates with the change in a person’s age.

However, the rate of alcohol-related disorders across all age-groups remained constant.

In the study, lead researcher Yuqing Zhang, of Boston University School of Medicine, and his team of researchers inscribed that, “The findings in this study may be considered encouraging in many ways: The average amount of alcohol has decreased in more recently born cohorts, the percentage of the population exhibiting 'moderate' alcohol intake has been increasing steadily, and the percentage reporting 'heavy' drinking has decreased over time."

In a nutshell researchers- on the basis of this study- deciphered that more and more Americans are adopting a healthier way of living but also warned about fatal alcohol-related illnesses and disorders.

The study was published in the August edition of The American Journal of Medicine.