SCIENCE@home

Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Incident Frailty: The English Longitudinal Study of Aging.

G. Kojima,S. Jivraj,S. Iliffe,M. Falcaro,A. Liljas,K. Walters

Published 2019 in Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND Alcohol consumption is a common modifiable lifestyle factor. Alcohol may be a risk factor for frailty, however, there is limited evidence in the literature. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study were to examine the association of alcohol consumption with the risk of incident frailty. METHODS This is a prospective panel study of 2544 community-dwelling people aged 60 years and older in England. Frailty status defined by frailty phenotype criteria was measured at baseline and 4 years later. Participants free of frailty at baseline were divided into 5 groups based on quantity of self-reported alcohol consumption per week with cut-points at 0, 7, 14, and 21 UK units per week. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) were calculated for incident frailty according to the alcohol consumption using logistic regression models. RESULTS Compared with the low consumption group (>0 and ≤7 units per week), incident frailty risk over 4 years was significantly higher among nondrinkers [OR 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12‒2.60, P value = .01], after controlling for sociodemographic confounders. In a supplementary analysis this became nonsignificant after further adjustment for baseline health status. Heavy drinkers (>21 units per week) had a significantly lower incident frailty risk (unadjusted OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.27‒0.75, P < .01), which became nonsignificant on adjustment for sociodemographic factors (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.37‒1.13, P = .12). CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS We found that nondrinkers were more likely than those with low alcohol consumption to develop frailty, but this appeared to be explained by poorer baseline health status. No evidence was found for an association between high levels of alcohol consumption and becoming frail. Future studies with information on life-course history of alcohol use, especially for those classified as nondrinkers in old age, are warranted.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-37 of 37 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-36 of 36 citing papers · Page 1 of 1