HOUSTON: Around 20 per cent of older people who drink alcohol are consuming it at unsafe levels – that is, over 21 units of alcohol for men and 14 units for women each week – according to a study.
The research found these unsafe older drinkers from the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) are more likely to be male and relatively affluent and represent an ever increasing population of people drinking at dangerous levels.
The researchers analysed the health records of 27,991 people aged 65 and over. From them, they identified 9,248 older people who had reported consuming alcohol and of these nearly two thousand people drank at unsafe levels. Less than half (46 per cent) of people in the study were men, but they comprised 60 per cent of the drinkers and 65 per cent of those drinking at unsafe levels, the team found…