AGING AND ALCOHOL ABUSE

虽然老年人酗酒是一个日益严重的问题，但也存在 关于他们酗酒和滥用酒精的模式的信息很少。信息 对酒精消费和滥用的纵向研究可能会提供 改善未来酒精问题预测的最有效手段 生活。标准老龄化研究(NAS)为以下项目提供了独特的数据库 在很大程度上考察饮酒模式的变化和稳定性 成年人的寿命。1973年和1982年，超过2000名男性最初的年龄为28岁 至89人回复了一到两份关于酒精使用的详细邮件调查。 1991年秋天，我们还对1709名男性进行了酒精调查， 以维持数据评估之间的九年间隔。 拟议的项目包括四项研究，其总体目的是 对晚年酗酒的描述和预测。在研究1中，我们 将考察酒精消费的变化和稳定模式，以及 大量饮酒造成的营业额。对前两个数据点的分析 显示随着时间的推移，饮酒行为发生了相当大的变化，39%的人 改变消费类别，44%的人从酗酒转变为 较少饮酒类别，45%的人从有问题变为无问题 喝酒。第三点使我们能够进一步评估谁在发展，谁在发展 在中晚年从酗酒中恢复过来。 研究2将使用四个领域的测量--家族史，社会， 个人的和情景的-评估酗酒和 晚年生活中的酒精问题。使用适当的方法，我们将检查 每个领域的测量对敏感度和 分类模型的特异性，并识别错误分类的男性，例如 在MAC量表上得分很高但没有报告饮酒的男性 有问题。在研究3中，我们将采访250个人的子样本， 过度抽样那些在酒精滥用方面被错误分类的人，以 找出降低错别率的方法。采访将会 还关注酗酒的近端原因、应对策略 压力，以及特定年龄的酒精问题。基于 访谈，研究4将开发一份问卷，用于向 NAS中的其余人员来验证我们的分类模型和 从采访中得出了新的措施。这些研究将提供 信息将提高我们对发展的理解和 在以后的生活中停止酗酒。

While alcohol abuse among the elderly is an increasing problem, there is little information on their patterns of alcohol use and abuse. Information from longitudinal studies of alcohol consumption and abuse may provide the most effective means of improving prediction of alcohol problems in later life. The Normative Aging Study (NAS) offers a unique database for examining change and stability in drinking patterns over a substantial part of the adult lifespan. In 1973 and 1982, over 2000 men initially aged 28 to 89 responded to one or two detailed mail surveys regarding alcohol use. We also administered the alcohol survey to 1,709 men in the fall of 1991, in order to maintain the nine year interval between data assessments. The proposed project consists of four studies whose overall purpose is the description and prediction of alcohol abuse in later life. In Study 1, we will examine patterns of change and stability in alcohol consumption and turnover in heavy drinking. Analysis of the first two data points indicated considerable change in drinking behavior over time, with 39% changing consumption categories, 44% moving from heavy drinking to a lighter drinking category, and 45% moving from problem to nonproblem drinking. The third point allows us to assess further who develops and who recovers from alcohol abuse in middle and later life. Study 2 will use measures from four domains - family history, social, personal, and situational - to assess the risk for heavy drinking and for alcohol problems in later life. Using appropriate methods, we will examine the contribution of measures from each domain to the sensitivity and specificity of a classification model, and identify misclassified men, e.g. men who score high on the MAC scale but who do not report drinking problems. In Study 3 we will interview a subsample of 250 individuals, oversampling those who are misclassified with regard to alcohol abuse, to identify ways of reducing the misclassification rate. The interviews will also focus on proximal reasons for alcohol abuse, strategies for coping with stress, and on age-specific alcohol problems. Based on the interviews, Study 4 will develop a questionnaire to be administered to the remaining men in the NAS to validate both our classification model and the new measures derived from the interviews. These studies will provide information that will improve our understanding of the development and cessation of alcohol abuse in later life.