a Department of Psychology , University of Central Florida , Orlando , Florida, USA.
Clin Gerontol. 2018 Jul-Sep;41(4):315-325. doi: 10.1080/07317115.2017.1364681. Epub 2017 Oct 9.
The primary goal was to examine the relationship between alcohol use and frailty, a variable characterizing late-life decline, in a national, longitudinal survey of older adults living in the United States.
The sample drawn from the Health and Retirement Study included 9,499 stroke-free participants over age 65 in 2000. The sample was 59.1% female, and had a mean age of 74.25 years (SD = 6.99). Follow-up data was from 2004, 2008, and 2012. Frailty was defined phenotypically using the Paulson-Lichtenberg Frailty Index (PLFI). Alcohol use was measured via self-report. Control variables included age, race, education, socio-economic status (SES), depressive symptomatology, medical burden score, body mass index (BMI), and partner status. With abstinent participants as the reference group, logistic regressions were conducted to determine prevalent frailty at 2000, and Cox's proportional hazard models were utilized to determine time to incident frailty over a 12-year period.
Results revealed that age, depressive symptomatology, and medical burden score were significant positive correlates of prevalent and incident frailty (p < .05) for both males and females. Logistic regressions revealed that consumption of 1-7 alcoholic drinks per week was associated with reduced prevalent frailty (OR = .49, p < .001) for females. Survival analysis results reveal that compared with nondrinkers, males and females who reportedly consumed 1-7 drinks per week had a decreased probability of incident frailty (HR = .78-081, p < .05).
Findings suggest that moderate alcohol use confers reduced frailty risk for both older men and women. Future research should examine the mechanism(s) relating alcohol consumption and frailty.
Findings support extant literature suggesting some healthcare benefits may be associated with moderate drinking.
本研究旨在通过对美国老年人进行全国性纵向调查，考察饮酒与衰弱之间的关系。衰弱是一种描述老年人衰退的变量。
本研究的样本来自健康与退休研究（Health and Retirement Study），共包括 2000 年 2499 名无中风的 65 岁以上老年人。该样本中 59.1%为女性，平均年龄为 74.25 岁（标准差=6.99 岁）。随访数据来自 2004 年、2008 年和 2012 年。衰弱通过保罗森-利希滕贝格衰弱指数（Paulson-Lichtenberg Frailty Index，PLFI）进行表型定义。饮酒情况通过自我报告进行测量。控制变量包括年龄、种族、教育程度、社会经济地位（socio-economic status，SES）、抑郁症状、医疗负担评分、体重指数（body mass index，BMI）和伴侣状况。以戒酒者为参照组，采用逻辑回归确定 2000 年时的普遍衰弱情况，采用 Cox 比例风险模型确定 12 年内发生衰弱的时间。
结果显示，年龄、抑郁症状和医疗负担评分是男性和女性普遍衰弱和发生衰弱的显著正相关因素（p<.05）。逻辑回归显示，每周饮用 1-7 份含酒精饮料与女性普遍衰弱的减少相关（OR=.49，p<.001）。生存分析结果显示，与不饮酒者相比，每周报告饮用 1-7 份含酒精饮料的男性和女性发生衰弱的概率降低（HR=.78-081，p<.05）。
这些发现表明，适量饮酒可以降低男性和女性的衰弱风险。未来的研究应探讨与饮酒和衰弱相关的机制。
这些发现支持了现有文献，表明适度饮酒可能与某些健康益处相关。
