The longitudinal patterns of alcohol use in older New Zealanders

Older adults are at significant risk from alcohol-related harm, yet few studies have explored the patterns of older adult alcohol use over time. New Zealand in particular has very little evidence of research in this area, despite recent studies suggesting that the patterns of alcohol use in older New Zealanders may be more hazardous than seen in their counterparts in other countries.(1, 2)

This report presents a longitudinal assessment of the drinking patterns evident in older New Zealanders over 10 years (2006 to 2016) using data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment-funded New Zealand Health, Work & Retirement Longitudinal Study at Massey University.

The longitudinal patterns of alcohol use in older New Zealanders

Our analyses indicate that, within a large sample of New Zealanders aged 50 years and over, there are five distinct drinking profiles (Figure 1) which are relatively stable across time. They include a large cohort of older adults drinking relatively infrequently and consuming little on each occasion, but also a substantial number of older New Zealanders drinking frequently and consuming a lot of alcohol every time they drank.

frequently but consume very few drinks on each drinking occasion). However, the remaining two profiles reflect approximately 13% of older drinkers whose alcohol consumption patterns pose serious and immediate risks to their health (i.e., they are drinking with moderate or high frequency and consuming many drinks on each occasion). Critical to identifying older drinkers whose consumption poses risks to their health is understanding who is likely to both drink with high frequency and consume high quantity per occasion.

Older drinkers consuming with higher frequency

The characteristics suggesting an older adult is likely to drink with higher frequency are:

 male

 at the younger stage of older adulthood (i.e., around 60-70 years of age)

 have a moderate to high level of education, and

 have a high economic living standard.

Older drinkers consuming higher quantity per occasion

Our analysis specify two separate sub-populations likely to consume alcohol in high quantities:

 Heavy drinkers with health issues: Those who drank large quantities of alcohol on each occasion with moderate frequency (i.e., a high-risk group) had the poorest physical and mental health, and were more likely to have three or more chronic health conditions than other groups of older drinkers.

 Heavy drinkers without health issues: Those who drank large quantities of alcohol on each occasion with high frequency (i.e., very high-risk group) had health profiles similar to those drinking at much lower quantities per occasion.

The single characteristic that jointly identified heavy drinking groups with and without health issues was that they were much more likely to be smokers than older drinkers who consumed fewer drinks per drinking occasion