people was 65 years of age or over while today, 1 out of every 8 people is 65 years of age or over; by 2010, this figure will be 1 out of every 7 people (FedStats, 1998).
While the elderly are challenged by a variety of health and health-related problems, Gupta (1993) reports that one of the most widespread problems is that of alcohol abuse. In an in-depth examination of the scope of alcohol abuse among the elderly, Adams, Yan, Barboriak and Rimm (1993) investigated the prevalence, geographic variation, and charges to Medicare of alcohol-related hospitalizations among elderly people in the United States. Results indicated that, yearly, about 55 older men per every 10,000 are being hospitalized for alcohol abuse. Among older women, the rate is lower with about 15 per 10,000 of those 65 years of age or older being hospitalized yearly for alcohol abuse.
Some geographic variation also appears to be associated with alcohol-related hospitalizations of older people with the lowest statistics being observed for the State of Arkansas (18.9 per 10,000) and the highest statistics being observed for Alaska (77 per 10,000). Moreover, it was found that the greater the alcohol consumption in any given state, the greater the number of older people being hospitalized for alcohol-related conditions. Medicare charges per year for these conditions were estimated by the authors to be close to 300 million dollars.
Based on their findings, Adams, Yan, Barboriak and Rimm (1993) stated that:
It is concluded that alcohol-related hospitalizations among elderly people are common, with rates similar to those for myocardial infarction as detected by the same method. The charges to Medicare for this preventable problem are considerable. Ecological analysis suggests that per capita consumption in the total U.S. population is a predictor of alcohol-related hospitalizations in the elderly population. (p.1222)
What needs to be realized here is that th...