Alcohol histories taken from elderly people

BMJ 1994;308:722 (12 March)

Letters

Alcohol histories taken from elderly people

EDITOR, - P C Naik and R G Jones claim that elderly people aremore likely to hide their drinking than younger people.¹ Thereis no evidence to support this. The Framingham study on alcoholconsumption and hip fractures, which looked at 5209 patients,found that differential underreporting of consumption by olderwomen did not occur.² Other studies have shown that older peopledrink less than younger ones,^3,4 but this is unlikely to bethe reason behind Naik and Jones's finding that doctors areless likely to record an alcohol history in elderly people.A failure to record any alcohol history in 48% of patients indicatesa failure of basic medical education rather than an underestimationof the importance of ingestion of alcohol by elderly people.⁵Fortunately, the number of patients in their study was smalland so, presumably, was the number of doctors.

Even careful estimates of alcohol intake are inaccurate, andthe estimated alcohol content of a hot toddy will be even moreunreliable. The conclusions drawn from a study of such a smallsample of patients should be regarded with caution.

D Thompson

Wharfedale General Hospital, Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 2LY.

Naik PC, Jones RG. Alcohol histories taken from elderly people on admission. BMJ 1994;308:248. (22 January.) [Free Full Text]
Felson DT, Kiel DP, Anderson JJ, Kannel WB. Alcohol consumption and hip fractures: the Framingham study. Am J Epidemiol 1988;128:1102-10. [Abstract/Free Full Text]
Glynn R, Bouchard GR, LoCastro JS, Laird NM. Ageing and generational effects on drinking behaviours in men: results from the normative ageing study. Am J Public Health 1985;75:1413-9. [Abstract/Free Full Text]
Goodwin JS, Sanchez CJ, Thomas P, Hunt C, Garry PJ, Goodwin JM. Alcohol intake in a healthy elderly population. Am J Public Health 1987;77:173-7. [Abstract/Free Full Text]
Wattis JP. Alcohol and old people. Br J Psychiatry 1983;143:306-7. [Free Full Text]

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