This project is intended to contribute to understandings of how alcohol use and alcohol problems impact on the aging process by: 1) conducting a twenty-year prospective follow-up of two large community samples of the general population; 2) explicitly focusing on changes in patterns of alcohol intake and alcohol problems over the life cycle; 3) providing an estimate of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality, and of potential drug interaction; and, 4) exploring how the functional abilities of the elderly are affected by prior levels of alcohol use. These issues have clear implications for the management of alcohol-related problems among the elderly. The proposed study makes use of two samples of the San Francisco adult population. The first of these (N=970) was interviewed in 1964 and is representative of the adult population age 23 and over of San Francisco at that time. The second sample (N=786) was interviewed in 1967 and is representative of white males living in San Francisco ages 21-59 in that year. The data sets contain a broad range of information concerning alcohol use and alcohol problems together with social, psychological, and demographic data. An analysis of these two samples, reinterviewed as the majority are now approaching or have exceeded retirement age, will identify changes in drinking patterns and drinking problems that occur with ages as well as explore correlates of changes in drinking patterns and drinking problems over time. In addition, prevalence data describing a broad range of alcohol-related problems for those persons now 60 and older can be computed for the samples, information which currently is not available for large-scale general population samples. Comparable data will also be available for the cohort aged 40-59. The available data thus provide an excellent baseline upon which research issues relating to alcohol and the aging process can be addressed. We expect the proposed analyses will hold strong implications for both theoretical and practical concerns relevant to alcohol use and the aging process. The research will describe not only current levels of alcohol use and alcohol problems among elderly persons, but also evidence on whether such problems are associated with earlier behaviors, beliefs, or psychological traits. It will allow the comparison of older drinkers who begin drinking in later life to those ex-problem drinkers who managed to resolve their problems, and to those drinkers who never had problems with drinking. This sort of comparison will contribute to the growth of a body of knowledge holding immediate health policy, prevention, and treatment implications.
