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. 2005 Mar;95(3):458-65.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2003.019471.

Longitudinal patterns and predictors of alcohol consumption in the United States

Alison A Moore  1 , Robert Gould, David B Reuben, Gail A Greendale, M Kallin Carter, Kefei Zhou, Arun Karlamangla
Affiliations

Longitudinal patterns and predictors of alcohol consumption in the United States

Alison A Moore et al. Am J Public Health. 2005 Mar.

Abstract

Objectives: We examined demographic predictors of longitudinal patterns in alcohol consumption.

Methods: We used mixed-effects models to describe individual alcohol consumption and change in consumption with age, as well as the associations between consumption and birth year, national alcohol consumption, and demographic factors, among 14 105 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study.

Results: Alcohol consumption declined with increasing age, and individual consumption mirrored national consumption. Higher consumption was associated with male gender, being White, being married, having a higher educational level, having a higher income, being employed, and being a smoker. Faster age-related decline in consumption was associated with earlier cohorts, being male, being married, having a lower educational level, and being a smoker.

Conclusions: Compared with alcohol consumption among earlier cohorts, that among recent cohorts declined more slowly with increasing age, suggesting that negative health effects of alcohol could increase in the future.

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Figures

FIGURE 1—
FIGURE 1—
Predicted longitudinal alcohol consumption in 3 birth cohorts (1905, 1925, 1945) of men (M) and women (F) from the NHANES I sample.…Note. Values were predicted with the following demographic covariates at baseline: White race, not married, working, nonsmoking, higher income (≥ $7000), and ≥ high school education. Per capita alcohol consumption was set at 2.5 gal/y. To clearly demonstrate the cohort modification of the age effect, we extrapolated alcohol consumption beyond the ages observed in the data (66–87 years for the 1905 cohort, 46–67 years for the cohort, and 26–47 years for the 1945 cohort).
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