Quantity-frequency and diary measures of alcohol consumption for elderly drinkers

Three measures were studied for estimating alcohol consumption by elderly drinkers. The diary measure resulted in significantly greater reported daily alcohol consumption (p = .004) and number of drinks consumed per week (p = .07) compared with a 7-day and 28-day quantity-frequency measure. No differences were found between diary and Q-F measures in classifying elderly as drinkers versus nondrinkers, and heavy versus light drinkers. Likely factors contributing to the apparent advantage of the diary measure over the Q-F measures are that it offers elderly a prompt to recall, and that it provides a direct estimate of alcohol consumption based on "actual" versus "usual" alcohol use. Shortcomings of the retrospective diary are discussed.