The negative impact of alcohol use on health depends on a variety of factors including age. Accordingly, the most recent strategic plan from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA; years 2017–2021) emphasizes the need for understanding the influence of alcohol on health and disease across the lifespan (NIAAA, 2017). Considerable research efforts have focused on the health effects of alcohol in prenatal, adolescent and young adult individuals. However, the percentage of the people aged 65 years or older who use alcohol is trending upward, has reached >40% of the population, and shows a positive correlation between age and drinking frequency (Breslow, Castle, Chen, & Graubard, 2017; Lewis, Garcia, & Nixon, 2018). Older individuals express a variety of age-related pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases, that increase vulnerability to other adverse health outcomes, such as poor response to and recovery from stress (Franceschi et al., 2018). Thus, alcohol use may interact with the aging process, or age-related disease conditions, to exacerbate negative health outcomes, which underscores the need for further research and public health information related to older age groups.
