Change in drinking behaviors with retirement: findings from the normative aging study

This study examines changes in drinking behaviors over an approximately 2-year span in two groups of community-dwelling men: 100 men who retired between baseline (T1) and follow-up (T2) and 316 men who remained employed. Measures were obtained from two drinking surveys conducted as part of a panel study of aging. Results indicate that the event of retirement was not a significant predictor of changes in average alcohol consumption, although retirees showed more variability between T1 and T2. Considering other binary drinking behavior variables, continuing workers and eventual retirees did not differ in the proportions moving into or out of the nondrinker status, or the situation of consuming an average of 3+ drinks/day. However, retirees by T2 were more likely to report the onset of periodic heavier drinking and problems with drinking. Evidence from this study indicates that retirement generally heralds no great shift in alcohol consumption or drinking behaviors.