Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Dec;27(8):1358-74.
doi: 10.1177/0898264315583052. Epub 2015 Apr 22.

Alcohol-Related Diagnoses in Hospital Admissions for All Causes Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Trends and Cohort Differences From 1993 to 2010

Paul Sacco  1 , George Jay Unick  2 , Alexis Kuerbis  3 , A Güneş Koru  4 , Alison A Moore  5
Affiliations

Alcohol-Related Diagnoses in Hospital Admissions for All Causes Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Trends and Cohort Differences From 1993 to 2010

Paul Sacco et al. J Aging Health. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: This aim of this study was to characterize trends in alcohol-related hospital admissions among middle-aged and older adults from 1993 to 2010 in relation to age, gender, race, and cohort membership.

Method: This study utilized repeated cross-sectional data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Using alcohol-related classified admissions, yearly rates and longitudinal trends of alcohol-related inpatient hospitalizations based on age, period, birth cohort, gender, and race were estimated.

Results: Among those aged 45 and older, admissions rose from an estimated 610,634 to more than 1,134,876, and rates of any alcohol-related diagnosis also increased from 1993 to 2010. Rates for men were consistently higher than women, and rates for Blacks were higher than Whites. Age was associated with decreasing rates, but post-World War II cohorts displayed higher rates over time.

Discussion: Rates of alcohol-related admissions are increasing among adults above age 45, which may be a function of cohort effects. Training the health care workforce is crucial to respond to this trend.

Keywords: alcohol; cohorts; epidemiology; health services; older adult; trends.

PubMed Disclaimer

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
Age and cohort distribution of alcohol-related admissions, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Rates of alcohol-related diagnoses by gender 1993–2010.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Rates of alcohol-related diagnoses by race and age group 2000–2010.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Age–period–cohort model. Note. The reference group for age, period, and cohort coefficients is the mean rate of age, period, and cohort, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adams WL, Zhong Y, Barboriak JJ, Rimm AA. Alcohol-related hospitalizations of elderly people: Prevalence and geographic variation in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1993;270:1222–1225. - PubMed
    1. Blow FC, Brockmann LM, Barry KL. Role of alcohol in late-life suicide. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2004;28:48S–56S. - PubMed
    1. Caetano R, Clark CL. Trends in alcohol consumption patterns among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics: 1984 and 1995. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 1998;59:659–668. - PubMed
    1. Chartier K, Caetano R. Ethnicity and health disparities in alcohol research. Alcohol Health and Research World. 2010;33(1–2):152–160. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen CM, Yi H. Trends in alcohol-related morbidity among short-stay community hospital discharges, United States, 1979–2007. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health; 2010.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources