Predictors of reduction and cessation of drinking in community-dwelling men: results from the normative aging study.

As part of a longitudinal study of health and aging, the conditions and motivational factors that prospectively predicted either cessation or reduction in alcohol consumption were compared. Data were from 1,517 community-dwelling men who in 1973 (Time 1) and 1982 (Time 2) completed mailed questionnaires about their drinking behaviors. Time 2 quitters (n = 62) had consumed no alcohol for at least the 6 months before that survey; reducers (n = 255) had decreased their yearly alcohol consumption by at least one-half. Compared to 971 controls, quitters reported more drinking problems at Time 1; reducers reported higher consumption at Time 1, which was the only factor predictive of subsequent reduction (p less than .001). Regression analyses considering contextual-motivational factors for drinking showed that at Time 1 quitters were less likely than controls to have consumed alcohol during evenings out (p = .008), in family-home settings (p = .013), or for salutary reasons (p = .084); conversely, they were more likely to have consumed alcohol to reduce negative affect (p = .011). Reducers cited more social-situational reasons for curtailing drinking; quitters cited more personal reasons related to health and alcohol effects. These findings indicate that in a community sample of men, problematic drinking behaviors tend to predict subsequent abstention rather than reduced drinking.

Aging and generational effects on drinking behaviors in men: results from the normative aging study.

The effects of aging on alcohol consumption behaviors are unclear because of confounding with period and cohort effects. In 1973, 1,859 male participants in the Normative Aging Study, born between 1892 and 1945, described their drinking behaviors by responding to a mailed questionnaire. In 1982, 1,713 of the participants in this study responded to a similar questionnaire. We used multivariate techniques, adjusting regression coefficients for the correlations between repeated responses of the same individuals, to assess the effects of birth cohort and aging on mean alcohol consumption level, on the prevalence of problems with drinking, and on the prevalence of averaging three or more drinks per day. Older men drank significantly less than younger men at both times yet there was no tendency for men to decrease their consumption levels over time. Each successively older birth cohort had a prevalence of problems with drinking estimated to be 0.037 lower than the prevalence of the next youngest cohort (95 per cent confidence interval: 0.029-0.045), yet there was no decrease in drinking problems over nine years. Interpretation of these findings requires consideration of the changes in attitudes as well as the increases in per capita consumption occurring in the United States throughout the 1970s. Results suggest that aging is not as important a factor in changes in drinking behaviors as generational or attitudinal changes.

The development of benign prostatic hyperplasia among volunteers in the Normative Aging Study.

This study describes the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia among 2,036 volunteers in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study of human aging situated in Boston. Men were followed from enrollment in the study (between 1961 and 1970) until their last examination prior to May 15, 1982. Two indications of benign prostatic hyperplasia were considered: 1) a clinical diagnosis made at a uniform physical examination, and 2) surgical treatment. Incidence rates for both a clinical diagnosis and surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia increased through the eighth decade. Life table analysis estimated the lifetime probability of surgical treatment to be 0.29. Known risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well as marital and socioeconomic status, religion, cigarette smoking and alcohol and coffee consumption were evaluated as risk factors. Controlling for age in proportional hazards models, statistically significant predictors of surgery were prior clinical diagnosis, lower socioeconomic status, Jewish religion, and not currently smoking cigarettes; whereas only body mass index was a significant predictor of a clinical diagnosis. Although a prior clinical diagnosis was an important predictor of surgery (adjusted odds ratio 3.52, 95% confidence interval = 1.93-6.42), this diagnosis is neither sensitive nor specific in its association with surgery.