Alcohol screening results in elderly male veterans: association with health status and mortality.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_A814E51BF529
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Alcohol screening results in elderly male veterans: association with health status and mortality.
Journal
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
Author(s)
Bridevaux I.P., Bradley K.A., Bryson C.L., McDonell M.B., Fihn S.D.
ISSN
0002-8614 (Print)
ISSN-L
0002-8614
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2004
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
52
Number
9
Pages
1510-1517
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the association between alcohol screening results and health status or mortality in elderly patients.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort studies.
SETTING: Primary care clinics at seven Veterans Affairs medical centers.
PARTICIPANTS: A total of 16,958 male patients aged 65 and older.
MEASUREMENTS: Alcohol screening questionnaires were used to divide patients into four mutually exclusive groups: drinkers who screened negative or positive for problem drinking and nondrinkers (in the previous year) who screened negative or positive for problem drinking. A subset of patients (n=12,491) completed a measure of health status, the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36). All-cause mortality was ascertained using Veterans Affairs data over a mean follow-up of 2.8 years.
RESULTS: Forty-eight percent of participants reported drinking in the previous year. Half of the drinkers and nondrinkers screened positive for problem drinking. The SF-36 item scores were consistently higher for drinkers than for nondrinkers and for patients who screened negative for problems than for those who screened positive. Similarly, survival was consistently better in drinkers than nondrinkers (mortality hazard ratio (HR)=0.74, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.68-0.82) and in patients who screened negative for problem drinking than in those who screened positive (mortality HR=0.87, 95% CI=0.80-0.95). Nondrinkers who screened positive for problem drinking had the poorest health status and survival, whereas drinkers who screened negative for problem drinking had the best health status and survival.
CONCLUSION: Elderly patients who reported drinking alcohol and those who screened negative for problem drinking had consistently better health status and survival than those who did not drink and those who screened positive.
Keywords
Aged/statistics & numerical data, Aged, 80 and over, Alcohol Drinking/adverse effects, Alcohol Drinking/mortality, Alcoholism/complications, Alcoholism/diagnosis, Case-Control Studies, Cause of Death, Comorbidity, Cross-Sectional Studies, Geriatric Assessment, Health Status, Hospitals, Veterans, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mass Screening/methods, Mortality, Proportional Hazards Models, Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Survival Analysis, United States/epidemiology, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans/statistics & numerical data
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
08/09/2013 12:36
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:12
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