Alcohol Use and Healthcare Utilization Among Midlife and Older Adults

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Alcohol consumption in older adults presents potential health risks.
• Current measures may not fully capture long-term health consequences of alcohol use.
• Understanding alcohol's impact on healthcare utilization is crucial for aging populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the predictive relationship between alcohol use and subsequent healthcare utilization in midlife and older adults.
• To determine if recent versus past alcohol consumption influences future hospitalizations and doctor visits.
• To examine how chronic disease burden modifies the association between alcohol use and healthcare utilization.

Main Methods:

• Utilized longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2012-2022).
• Employed fixed-effects negative binomial models to analyze within-person associations.
• Assessed both contemporaneous and 2-year lagged alcohol consumption measures.

Main Results:

• Contemporaneous alcohol use showed fewer hospitalizations.
• Two-year lagged models indicated a less protective, more adverse pattern for hospitalizations.
• Prior drinking predicted increased subsequent healthcare utilization, particularly with higher chronic disease burden.

Conclusions:

• Recent alcohol consumption history offers insights into future health risks beyond current drinking status.
• Alcohol's impact on healthcare utilization is more evident in older adults with multiple chronic conditions.
• Longitudinal assessment of alcohol use is vital for understanding its long-term health implications in aging populations.