Citation

Halonen JI, Stenholm S, Pulakka A, Kawachi I, Aalto V, Pentti J, Lallukka T, Virtanen M, Vahtera J, Kivimaki M. Addiction 2017; 112(7): 1163-1170.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London Medical School, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/add.13811

PMID

28257157

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Life transitions such as retirement may influence alcohol consumption, but only a few studies have described this using longitudinal data. We identified patterns and predictors of risky drinking around the time of retirement.

DESIGN: A cohort study assessing trajectories and predictors of risky drinking among employees entering statutory retirement between 2000 and 2011. Setting and Participants 5805 men and women from the Finnish Public Sector study who responded to questions on alcohol consumption one to three times prior to (w-3 , w-2 , w-1 ), and one to three times after (w+1 , w+2 , w+3 ) retirement. MEASUREMENTS: We assessed trajectories of risky drinking (>288 g of pure alcohol per week among men, >192 g among women, or an extreme drinking occasion during past year) from pre- to post-retirement, as well as predictors of each alcohol consumption trajectory.

FINDINGS: Three trajectories were identified: sustained healthy drinking (81% of participants), temporary increase in risky drinking around retirement (12%), and slowly declining risky drinking after retirement (7%). The strongest pre-retirement predictors for belonging to the group of temporary increase in risky drinking were current smoking (odds ratio 3.90, 95% CI 2.70 to 5.64), male sex (2.77, 95% CI 2.16 to 3.55), depression (1.44, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.99), and workplace in the metropolitan area (1.29, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.66). Compared with the slowly declining risky drinking group, the temporary increase in risky drinking group was characterised by lower occupational status and education, and workplace outside the metropolitan area.

CONCLUSIONS: In Finland, approximately 12% of people who reach retirement age experience a temporary increase in alcohol consumption to risky levels while around 7% experience a slow decline in risky level alcohol consumption. Male gender, smoking, being depressed and working in a metropolitan area are associated with increased likelihood of increased alcohol consumption.

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Language: en

Keywords

aging; alcohol; cohort; retirement; risky drinking