Elderly Women Seem to Enjoy Drinking More

A new study reveals that more elderly women tend to make a habit out of drinking alcohol. The prevalence of excessive drinking among elderly women appears is increasing faster than it ever did in senior men. Researchers indicate that the difference between alcohol consumption in male and women is striking. For senior men, the prevalence of binge drinking was constant from 1997 to 2014. Nevertheless, for senior women, this value increased by about 4% every year.

The number of elderly women drinking alcohol has raised in recent years

Rosalind Breslow, an epidemiologist at the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, stated that excessive alcohol consumption could threat women’s state of health. Breslow explained that women are not able to handle alcohol as men do and, thus, they may develop alcohol-related issues even if they drink less than men. The study showed that usually women weight less than men and, in this way, they have less water in their body than men do.

Breslow argued that if a lady and a man who have the same weight drink the same amount of alcohol, the alcohol concentration from the woman’s blood will be higher than the man’s. To develop the study, Breslow and her team gathered information on 65,000 participants, all aged 60 or even older and who declared to drink alcohol. Apparently, over 1,700 women and 6,500 men were binge drinkers.

Some researchers claim that baby boomers tend to be heavy drinkers

Seniors present a great risk of being affected by the effects of alcohol compared to younger people. Seniors could be more sensitive to alcohol’s effects and could injure themselves or fall when dizzy. Due to the fact the US population is aging, the number of women and men aged over 60 who still drink alcohol could further increase in the upcoming years.

In the new study, Breslow revealed that they found out that the number of elderly male drinker in the US rose by 1 % between 1997 and 2014. The number of female drinkers within the same period increased by 2% every year. Breslow argued that she does not find a plausible explanation for this. She also stated that some rumors were suggesting that baby boomers used to drink more in their youth and preserved their habit when getting older.

Specialists also claimed that they did not examine whether drinking alcohol depends on factors like ethnicity or race.

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