Alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality among elderly in Finland Jukka T. Halme 1, Kaija Seppä 2, Hannu Alho 1, Mauri Aalto 1 1 National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland 2 University of Tampere, Finland

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle A prevalence/mortality study... How does it relate to BI? Not much is really known about prevalence of heavy drinking among the elderly...is there a target group for BI or not? The proportion and absolute number of older persons in communities in the western world is increasing...that means an increasing demand to develop counselling services and also BIs for the elderly.

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle Introduction Limits for heavy drinking: NIAAA and American Geriatrics Society: among healthy persons aged 65+ years: no more than 7 drinks per week or 3 drinks on a single day (NIAAA, 2005). Empirical evidence supporting these limits is sparse. Estimated prevalences of heavy drinking among eldely –In the U.S. (Breslow et al. 2003): 9-10 % for males, 2-3 % for females –In the UK. (Lang et al. 2007): 29 % for males, 10 % for females Mortality: Some studies support J- or U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality also among populations of older persons (Groenbaek et al. 1998, Thun et al. 1997, Goldberg et al 1994). But there are contradictory results, too (Reid et al. 2002).

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle Subjects and methods Health 2000 Study: Population survey in Finland ( interviews, health examinations and questionnaires). Subjects: n=1569, 73% of the original sample, 65% female, weighted n=1357. QF –measures of alcohol use. Deaths: Follow-up from 2000 to 2007, data from the official Cause-of-Death register maintained by Statistics Finland. Demographic and potentially confounding variables in mortality analyses: age in years, education, the number of persons sharing household, presence of a chronic medical condition, presence of angina pectoris, BMI, regular smoking, use of prescription drugs and self-rated health. Data was analysed with STATA 8.2 using weights designed by Statistics of Finland.

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle Results: Alcohol consumption 20.3 % Heavy Drinking in men 1.2 % MEN Heavy Drinking in women WOMEN

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle Results: Odds for all-cause mortality among elderly MEN Covariate-adjusted RRs of death OR=2.11 Drinks per week

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle Conclusions Is there a target group for BIs among elderly? Heavy drinking is rather common and severe health risk among Finnish elderly men. The present study showed an increased all-cause mortality risk for older men drinking more than two drinks per day on average. More studies are required for developing clinical guidelines for alcohol use among the elderly.

Halme JT, Inebria, Newcastle Thank You!