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. 2013 Jun;25(4):656-77.
doi: 10.1177/0898264313484058. Epub 2013 May 1.

Pain and use of alcohol in later life: prospective evidence from the health and retirement study

Penny L Brennan  1 , Sonya Soohoo
Affiliations

Pain and use of alcohol in later life: prospective evidence from the health and retirement study

Penny L Brennan et al. J Aging Health. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether (a) late-life pain predicts growth in older adults' use of alcohol, and elevated risk of drinking problems; and (b) sociodemographic characteristics moderate these relationships.

Method: Five times over an 8-year interval, N = 5,446 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) participants provided information about their pain and alcohol use. Two-part latent growth modeling and logistic regression were used to analyze these data.

Results: Participants with more pain at baseline had lower initial levels and a faster rate of decline over the next 8 years in alcohol consumption, but they also were at elevated risk of having drinking problems. Income and African American background interacted with pain to predict 8-year change in alcohol consumption and presence of drinking problems.

Discussion: Late-life pain does not predict growth in older adults' alcohol consumption, but is nonetheless linked to elevated risk of drinking problems, especially among African Americans.

Keywords: alcohol consumption; drinking problems; late-middle-age; older adults; pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Two-part conditional latent linear growth model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Moderating effect of African American background on the influence of pain interference and likelihood of consuming alcohol, 1996 to 2004.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Moderating effect of African American background on the relationship of pain interference to likelihood of having drinking problems.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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