William Atkins
Thursday, 07 August 2008 21:18
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
According to a fifty-year study of drinking habits in the United States, Americans appear to be drinking less as they age, and to be switching from beer to wine. Unfortunately, the percentage of alcohol-related disorders was found to be about the same.
In fact, the lead researcher in the study, R. Curtis Ellison, from Boston University School of Medicine (Massachusetts, U.S.A.), stated,
"It looks like moderate drinking has been increasing, heavy drinking is down a little bit, and total alcohol consumption is down a little bit. It is encouraging news that more people are drinking moderately, and the average intake is coming down rather than shooting up.” [U.S. News and World Report: “
Americans Drinking Less Alcohol ]
The researchers in the study used 8,600 middle-class Caucasian-Americans, born from 1900 to 1959, from the city of Framingham, Massachusetts to check out their lifestyles and health as they aged.
The participants reported their alcohol consumption between the years of 1948 and 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study, what is considered the longest study of alcohol use in the United States.
The researchers wanted to find out the history of alcohol use and disorders among the subjects, especially with regards to age, sex, and birth cohorts (three generations: 1900-1919, 1920-1939, and 1940-1959).
The conclusions of their study were written up in the August 2008 issue of
The American Journal of Medicine (volume 121, issue 8, pages 695 to 701). Its title “
Secular Trends in Alcohol Consumption over 50 years: The Framingham Study” was authored by Yuqing Zhang, Xinxin Guo, Richard Saitz, Daniel Levy, Emily Sartini, Jingbo Niu, and R. Curtis Ellison.
The Massachusetts researchers found that the consumption of alcohol (among drinkers) decreased with age, on average, among subjects between the ages of 30 and 59 years. The percentage of drinkers also declined as some drinkers became non-drinkers.
In addition, the percentage of moderate drinkers was higher and the percentage of heavy drinkers was lower in the younger generations than what it was in the older generations. Overall, each generation drank less as it got older.
What did the researchers specifically find to be the average amount of alcohol drunk each day? Please read on to find out.
