UMaine Center on Aging to Study Binge and Chronic Drinking by Elders
Contact: Lenard Kaye, (207) 581-3444
George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Binge drinking typically may not be associated with older people, but the UMaine Center on Aging says alcohol abuse among elder Mainers, particularly Downeast, is a major problem that is about to be addressed.
The Center has begun a two-year study, funded by a $30,000 grant from the state Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Substance Abuse, to find out how prevalent binge and chronic drinking is among people over age 65, what lifestyle or cultural factors contribute to it and what can be done to influence those factors.
“This is a very exciting project that is going to investigate a very severe and neglected problem, and that is alcohol abuse among older adults,” says Lenard Kaye, director of the UMaine Center on Aging.
The study will be statewide in nature but will focus especially on Hancock County, which has a disproportionately high percentage of older alcohol abusers compared to other regions of the state, according to a 2002 Health Planning Report for the Hancock region performed by Eastern Maine Healthcare.
Heavy drinking, particularly when mixed with a multitude of prescription drugs many elders take to stabilize their health, can lead to mental and physical health complications that may otherwise be avoidable.
Maine, statistically, has the largest percentage of older people of any state in the nation and Maine ranks 14th in sales of spirits. Studies show that alcohol-related costs in Maine are approximately $1 billion a year, according to Kaye. “These expenditures are reflected in the cost of treatment, traffic accidents, associated health problems and lost work time,” he says.
It’s not unusual for rural populations to have higher than average rates of alcoholism, and older people in rural settings often face loneliness, isolation and depression — putting them at particular risk. They sometimes drink as a coping mechanism, Kaye says.
Kaye says substance abuse programs nationally and in Maine are heavily geared to younger substance abusers and seldom focus on the needs of the elderly.
“We’re hoping our recommendations will include some creative prevention programs that the Office of Substance Abuse and others can consider adopting as a result of our study,” he says.
Kaye and senior research associate Leah Ruffin will recruit several graduate students in the UMaine social work program to assist with organizing and coordinating information gathering through more than two dozen community and state agencies, organizations or institutions that work with older adults.
The two-year research project involves close collaborations with the Healthy Hancock Coalition, a group of community health coalitions in Bucksport, Ellsworth, Blue Hill, and Mount Desert Island committed to improving the quality of life of Mainers in their region of the county. In addition to using written questionnaires, the Center on Aging will administer as many as a dozen focus groups to query a broad variety of people who work or live with the elderly, including physicians and other health care professionals, families, township officials, educators and even clergy, according to Kaye.
“We are also going to interview experts throughout the state who have experience with these folks,” he adds. Recognized experts in addiction medicine and substance abuse treatment services will provide technical consultation to the project.
Researchers will seek to sort out how economic and social status affects heavy drinkers, and how geographic isolation, family relationships, cultural traditions and health status affect consumption patterns, Kaye says.
“It’s difficult to tell anyone to stop drinking, but to affectively alter that behavior, you’ve got to deal with the root cause,” he says.
Information collected will remain confidential. “We are not interested in uncovering the names of individuals here,” Kaye notes. “Rather, we want to shed light on significant trends and those factors that figure most prominently in influencing alcohol consumptions patterns among older Mainers.”