Annotated Bibliography: Alcohol and the Elderly

Blow, F.C., Walton, M.A., Barry, K.L., Coyne, J.C., Mudd, S.A.,

& Copeland, L.A. (2000). The relationship between

alcohol problems and health functioning of older adults in

primary care settings. Journal of the American

The purpose of this study by Blow, et al (2000) was to employ a sample of older adults screened in primary health care settings and to assess the relationship between alcohol use and health functioning. Using a review of literature, the authors conducted a cross-sectional study located in 37 primary care clinics. Results indicated that of the 8,578 adults aged 55 to 97, 61 percent were abstainers, 31 percent were low-risk drinkers, and only 7 percent were at-risk drinkers.

Those who were at-risk drinkers had significantly poorer mental health functioning than the low-risk drinkers. The authors recommended that physicians must do more than screen for physical health functioning to assess the relationship between drinking alcohol and its effects on older adults.

These conclusions support my view that it may be difficult among older adults with multiple physical problems to immediately detect alcohol problems. The authors did not indicate any significant variations within the age group, suggesting that it is important to study such variations.

Do you agree or disagree with the author's conclusions? Why?

I agree with the authors' conclusions first, because

. . .
did not point out that alcohol consumption patterns vary by culture. Thus, one cannot extrapolate these findings to older individuals in other cultures. What other information might be important to know before making any judgment of the value and importance of this article? It would be useful to have access to more of the basic demographic data collected by the authors such as the relationship between education and drinking. While the authors were focused on the risk of mortality and its association with alcohol intake, they collected enough data to provide insight into issues related to alcohol consumption patterns in the context of socioeconomic and demographic data. Lindeman, R.D., Romero, L.J., Allen, A.S., & Liang, H.C., Baumgartner, R.N., Koehler, K.M., & Garry, P.J. (1999). Alcohol consumption is negatively associated with the prevalence of coronary heart disease in the New Mexico Elder Health Survey. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 47, 396-401. Lindeman, et al, (1999) were interested in a comparison of the relationships between coronary heart disease and various risk factors, including alcohol consumption. They looked at prevalence rates of coronary disease in a randomly selected sample
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 4118
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)

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