This report by Massey University and the University of Auckland looked at the initiation of alcohol use, the patterns of alcohol use across the lifespan, and transitions from hazardous to non-hazardous drinking.

Massey University and the University of Auckland were funded through HPA’s Research Investments for Priorities in Alcohol (RIPA) to look at the role of alcohol in older people’s lives, patterns of alcohol use, and how the drinking patterns of older New Zealanders compare with other countries. They did this using 10 years of longitudinal data...

In a national survey of older adults, we compared the classification of hazardous versus non-hazardous drinkers based on the AUDIT-C and the Comorbidity Alcohol Risk Evaluation Tool (CARET).

Very little is known about the role of alcohol in older people’s lives over the lifespan, patterns of alcohol use over older adulthood, and how the drinking patterns of older New Zealanders compare with patterns in older adults in other countries. Using data from the New Zealand Health, Work & Retirement Longitudinal Study (NZHWR), this...