Twenty Years Socioeconomic Trajectories in Older Adults with Varying Alcohol Use: A Register-Based Cohort Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-314
Author(s):  
Anna Mejldal ◽  
Kjeld Andersen ◽  
Silke Behrendt ◽  
Randi Bilberg ◽  
Anne Illemann Christensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
National Health Survey ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
National Register Data ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Aims The objective of this paper was to examine 20-year trends of the socioeconomic status (SES) measures income and employment and their association with current alcohol use behaviors in Danish adults aged 60–70. Methods Data from The Danish National Health Survey 2013 and the baseline assessment of the Elderly Study (2013–2016) were combined to form four groups from the general population with various drinking patterns, but with no recent treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD), and one group seeking treatment: Abstinent (n = 691), low- (n = 1978), moderate- (n = 602), and high-risk (HR) drinkers (n = 467), and DSM-5 AUD seeking treatment (n = 262). For all groups, Danish national register data were linked at the individual level obtain find annual information on income and employment during the 20 years prior to interview. Mixed effects models were utilized to model trajectories of income and employment for the five groups. Results Lower income and employment status was observed from middle-aged adulthood when comparing 12-month abstinence or AUD to individuals with low or moderate alcohol consumption. At the end of the study period, moderate-risk drinkers experienced an increase, and HR drinkers a decrease, in income and rate of employment relative to the low-risk drinkers. Conclusions Alcohol use behaviors observed in older adults are related to distinct long-term trajectories regarding income and employment status, which are observable already in middle-aged adulthood.

scholarly journals The Normative Underpinnings of Population-Level Alcohol Use: An Individual-Level Simulation Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-234
Author(s):  
Charlotte Probst ◽  
Tuong Manh Vu ◽  
Joshua M. Epstein ◽  
Alexandra E. Nielsen ◽  
Charlotte Buckley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Behavioral Rules ◽  
Level Model ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Background. By defining what is “normal,” appropriate, expected, and unacceptable, social norms shape human behavior. However, the individual-level mechanisms through which social norms impact population-level trends in health-relevant behaviors are not well understood. Aims. To test the ability of social norms mechanisms to predict changes in population-level drinking patterns. Method. An individual-level model was developed to simulate dynamic normative mechanisms and behavioral rules underlying drinking behavior over time. The model encompassed descriptive and injunctive drinking norms and their impact on frequency and quantity of alcohol use. A microsynthesis initialized in 1979 was used as a demographically representative synthetic U.S. population. Three experiments were performed in order to test the modelled normative mechanisms. Results. Overall, the experiments showed limited influence of normative interventions on population-level alcohol use. An increase in the desire to drink led to the most meaningful changes in the population’s drinking behavior. The findings of the experiments underline the importance of autonomy, that is, the degree to which an individual is susceptible to normative influence. Conclusion. The model was able to predict theoretically plausible changes in drinking patterns at the population level through the impact of social mechanisms. Future applications of the model could be used to plan norms interventions pertaining to alcohol use as well as other health behaviors.

DSM-5 alcohol use disorder features among treatment-seeking older adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Behrendt ◽  
Barbara Braun ◽  
Randi Bilberg ◽  
Gerhard Bühringer ◽  
Michael Bogenschutz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Alcohol Use Disorder ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Treatment Seeking ◽  
Controlled Clinical Trial ◽  
Dsm 5 ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
And Gender ◽  
International Multicenter

Abstract. Background: The number of older adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) is expected to rise. Adapted treatments for this group are lacking and information on AUD features in treatment seeking older adults is scarce. The international multicenter randomized-controlled clinical trial “ELDERLY-Study” with few exclusion criteria was conducted to investigate two outpatient AUD-treatments for adults aged 60+ with DSM-5 AUD. Aims: To add to 1) basic methodological information on the ELDERLY-Study by providing information on AUD features in ELDERLY-participants taking into account country and gender, and 2) knowledge on AUD features in older adults seeking outpatient treatment. Methods: baseline data from the German and Danish ELDERLY-sites (n=544) were used. AUD diagnoses were obtained with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, alcohol use information with Form 90. Results: Lost control, desired control, mental/physical problem, and craving were the most prevalent (> 70 %) AUD-symptoms. 54.9 % reported severe DSM-5 AUD (moderate: 28.2 %, mild: 16.9 %). Mean daily alcohol use was 6.3 drinks at 12 grams ethanol each. 93.9 % reported binging. More intense alcohol use was associated with greater AUD-severity and male gender. Country effects showed for alcohol use and AUD-severity. Conclusion: European ELDERLY-participants presented typical dependence symptoms, a wide range of severity, and intense alcohol use. This may underline the clinical significance of AUD in treatment-seeking seniors.

scholarly journals System models for resilience in gerontology: application to the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Klasa ◽  
Stephanie Galaitsi ◽  
Andrew Wister ◽  
Igor Linkov
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
System Level ◽  
Improve Quality ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Chronic Stressors ◽  
The World ◽  
Aging Adults ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThe care needs for aging adults are increasing burdens on health systems around the world. Efforts minimizing risk to improve quality of life and aging have proven moderately successful, but acute shocks and chronic stressors to an individual’s systemic physical and cognitive functions may accelerate their inevitable degradations. A framework for resilience to the challenges associated with aging is required to complement on-going risk reduction policies, programs and interventions. Studies measuring resilience among the elderly at the individual level have not produced a standard methodology. Moreover, resilience measurements need to incorporate external structural and system-level factors that determine the resources that adults can access while recovering from aging-related adversities. We use the National Academies of Science conceptualization of resilience for natural disasters to frame resilience for aging adults. This enables development of a generalized theory of resilience for different individual and structural contexts and populations, including a specific application to the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Pro-Environmental Behavior in an Aging World: Evidence from 31 Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1748
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Feng Hao ◽  
Yunxia Liu
Keyword(s):  
Linear Models ◽  
Population Change ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Individual

Population change and environmental degradation have become two of the most pressing issues for sustainable development in the contemporary world, while the effect of population aging on pro-environmental behavior remains controversial. In this paper, we examine the effects of individual and population aging on pro-environmental behavior through multilevel analyses of cross-national data from 31 countries. Hierarchical linear models with random intercepts are employed to analyze the data. The findings reveal a positive relationship between aging and pro-environmental behavior. At the individual level, older people are more likely to participate in environmental behavior (b = 0.052, p < 0.001), and at the national level, living in a country with a greater share of older persons encourages individuals to behave sustainably (b = 0.023, p < 0.01). We also found that the elderly are more environmentally active in an aging society. The findings imply that the longevity of human beings may offer opportunities for the improvement of the natural environment.

Neighborhood Influences on Physical Activity in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Multilevel Perspective

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuzhong Li ◽  
K. John Fisher ◽  
Adrian Bauman ◽  
Marcia G. Ory ◽  
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Physical Activity Behavior ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Neighborhood Influences ◽  
Environment Variables ◽  
Multilevel Perspective

Over the past few years, attention has been drawn to the importance of neighborhood influences on physical activity behavior and the need to consider a multilevel analysis involving not only individual-level variables but also social-and physical-environment variables at the neighborhood level in explaining individual differences in physical activity outcomes. This new paradigm raises a series of issues concerning systems of influence observed at different hierarchical levels (e.g., individuals, neighborhoods) and variables that can be defined at each level. This article reviews research literature and discusses substantive, operational, and statistical issues in studies involving multilevel influences on middle-aged and older adults’ physical activity. To encourage multilevel research, the authors propose a model that focuses attention on multiple levels of influence and the interaction among variables characterizing individuals, among variables characterizing neighborhoods, and across both levels. They conclude that a multilevel perspective is needed to increase understanding of the multiple influences on physical activity.

scholarly journals Discordant Chronic Conditions and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Associations Among Middle-Aged and Older Couples

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney A Polenick ◽  
Kira S Birditt ◽  
Angela Turkelson ◽  
Benjamin C Bugajski ◽  
Helen C Kales
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Objectives Individuals often manage chronic conditions in middle and later life that may diminish well-being. Little is known, however, about discordant conditions (i.e., two or more conditions with competing self-management requirements) among older couples and their links to depressive symptoms. We considered discordant conditions at both the individual level and the couple level (i.e., between spouses), along with their long-term implications for depressive symptoms. Methods The U.S. sample included 1,116 middle-aged and older couples drawn from five waves (2006–2014) of the Health and Retirement Study. Longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models evaluated whether individual-level and couple-level discordant chronic health conditions were concurrently linked to depressive symptoms, and whether these associations became stronger over time. Models controlled for age, minority status, education, prior wave depressive symptoms, and each partner’s baseline report of negative marital quality and number of chronic conditions in each wave. Results Wives and husbands reported significantly greater depressive symptoms when they had individual-level discordant conditions about 2 years after baseline, and these links intensified over time. Beyond this association, husbands had significantly greater depressive symptoms when there were couple-level discordant conditions. Discussion Individual-level and couple-level discordant conditions may have lasting implications for depressive symptoms during midlife and older adulthood.

Children’s Height and Parental Unemployment: A Large-Scale Anthropometric Study on Eastern Germany, 1994–2006

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Baten ◽  
Andreas Böhm
Keyword(s):  
Employment Status ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Average Height ◽  
Panel Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Parental Unemployment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Anthropometric Study

Abstract The average height of children is an indicator of the quality of nutrition and healthcare. In this study, we assess the effect of unemployment and other factors on this variable. In the Eastern German Land of Brandenburg, a dataset of 253,050 preschool height measurements was compiled and complemented with information on parents’ schooling and employment status. Unemployment might have negative psychological effects, with an impact on parental care. Both a panel analysis of districts and an assessment at the individual level yield the result that increasing unemployment, net out-migration and fertility were in fact reducing height.

Area-level relative deprivation and alcohol use in Denmark: Is there a relationship?

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Bloomfield ◽  
Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff ◽  
Abdu Kedir Seid ◽  
Christiane Stock
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Area Deprivation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Housing Component ◽  
Disorder Identification ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Aims: Greater area-level relative deprivation has been related to poorer health behaviours, but studies specifically on alcohol use and abuse have been equivocal. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate how area-level relative deprivation in Denmark relates to alcohol use and misuse in the country. Methods: As individual-level data, we used the national alcohol and drug survey of 2011 ( n= 5133). Data were procured from Statistics Denmark to construct an index of relative deprivation at the parish level ( n=2119). The deprivation index has two components, which were divided into quintiles. Multilevel linear and logistic regressions analysed the influence of area deprivation on mean alcohol use and hazardous drinking, as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Results: Men who lived in parishes designated as ‘very deprived’ on the socioeconomic component were more likely to consume less alcohol; women who lived in parishes designated as ‘deprived’ on the housing component were less likely to drink hazardously. But at the individual level, education was positively related to mean alcohol consumption, and higher individual income was positively related to mean consumption for women. Higher-educated men were more likely to drink hazardously. Conclusions: Area-level measures of relative deprivation were not strongly related to alcohol use, yet in the same models individual-level socioeconomic variables had a more noticeable influence. This suggests that in a stronger welfare state, the impact of area-level relative deprivation may not be as great. Further work is needed to develop more sensitive measures of relative deprivation.

scholarly journals SleepOMICS: How Big Data Can Revolutionize Sleep Science

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Luigi Bragazzi ◽  
Ottavia Guglielmi ◽  
and Sergio Garbarino
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Sleep Disorders ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Sleep Medicine ◽  
Sleep Research ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual

Sleep disorders have reached epidemic proportions worldwide, affecting the youth as well as the elderly, crossing the entire lifespan in both developed and developing countries. “Real-life” behavioral (sensor-based), molecular, digital, and epidemiological big data represent a source of an impressive wealth of information that can be exploited in order to advance the field of sleep research. It can be anticipated that big data will have a profound impact, potentially enabling the dissection of differences and oscillations in sleep dynamics and architecture at the individual level (“sleepOMICS”), thus paving the way for a targeted, “one-size-does-not-fit-all” management of sleep disorders (“precision sleep medicine”).

scholarly journals Comparing subjective intoxication with risky single-occasion drinking in a European sample

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0241433
Author(s):  
Carolin Kilian ◽  
Jakob Manthey ◽  
Jacek Moskalewicz ◽  
Emanuele Scafato ◽  
Lidia Segura García ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rank Correlation ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Sociodemographic Characteristics ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Harmful Drinking ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Risky Single Occasion Drinking

In most epidemiological literature, harmful drinking—a drinking pattern recognized as closely linked to alcohol-attributable diseases—is recorded using the measure risky single-occasion drinking (RSOD), which is based on drinking above a certain quantity. In contrast, subjective intoxication (SI) as an alternative measure can provide additional information, including the drinker’s subjective perceptions and cultural influences on alcohol consumption. However, there is a lack of research comparing both. The current article investigates this comparison, using data from the Standardized European Alcohol Survey from 2015. We analysed the data of 12,512 women and 12,516 men from 17 European countries and one region. We calculated survey-weighted prevalence of SI and RSOD and compared them using Spearman rank correlation and regression models. We examined the role of the required quantity of alcohol needed for the drinker to perceive impairments and analysed additional demographic and sociodemographic characteristics as well as drinking patterns. In the most locations, the prevalence of SI was lower or equal to the prevalence of RSOD. Both prevalence estimates were highly correlated. Almost 8% of the variance in the difference between the individual-level frequencies of the SI and RSOD measures was explained by the individual quantity of alcohol needed to perceive impairments. Sociodemographic characteristics and drinking patterns explained less than 20% in the adjusted perceived quantity of alcohol needed. In conclusion, our results indicated that subjective measures of intoxication are not a preferable indicator of harmful drinking to the more conventional measures of RSOD.

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