[Alcohol consumption among persons aged 55+ in The Netherlands]

In The Netherlands no detailed information about alcohol consumption among older persons (55 years and older) is available. Therefore we investigated the prevalence and determinants of alcohol consumption with data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. The results show that 13.4% of persons of 55 years and older are heavy drinkers (male >3 glasses per day, female >2 glasses per day). Most heavy drinkers are younger than 75 years of age, and in this age group more female (22.2%) than male (14.8%) are heavy drinkers. 13% of all participants frequently drinks 6 or more glasses in a short period of time (binge drinking). In the age group of 55-65 years alcohol consumption has considerably increased over a period of ten years. This increase is stronger among females than among males. When people grow older alcohol consumption decreases, which seems associated with a decline in physical or psychological health and/or cognitive decline. Heavy and binge drinking is associated with younger age, higher education and income, and may be strongly related to their social lifes.