아산시 노인의 알코올 사용의 특성에 관한 비교 연구 = A Comparative Study on the Characteristics of Alcohol Use in the Elderly of Asan City

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objective：Elderly people are vulnerable to the adverse effects of alcohol. However, there have been few studies of drinking among the elderly despite the proportionally growing representation of the elderly in the Korean population. This study aims to compare the characteristics of alcohol use and the prevalence of alcohol use disorders in the elderly with those in younger groups using screening tests. Method：We sampled 226 in young aged group (25-34 years of age), 127 in middle aged group (45-54 years of age) and 87 in elderly group (over 65 years of age) living in the Asan city. We applied the questionnaire asking alcohol use, AUDIT-K (Korean version of Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and CAGE. The numbers who have drunken alcohol last year were 175 in young aged group, 95 in middle aged group and 40 in elderly group.
We compared their drinking patterns and the results of AUDIT-K and CAGE among three groups. Results：1. The elderly group had tendency to drink smaller amount of alcohol and less frequently than other two groups. 2. The elderly group preferred drinking alcohol alone or with neighbors compared to other two groups. 3. The total score of AUDIT-K of the elderly group (7.05) was lower than young and middle aged groups (9.31 and 9.63, respectively). 4. The prevalence of alcohol use disorder assessed by AUDIT-K was higher than other two groups. 5. The total score of CAGE of the elderly (0.73) was significantly lower than young and middle aged groups (0.76and 1.25, respectively). 6. The prevalence of drinker with probable alcohol dependence evaluated by CAGE of the elderly was higher than middle aged group and lower than young aged group. Conclusion: The fact that the elderly group preferred drinking alcohol alone or with neighbors compared to other two groups shows us where we have to concentrate for the prevention of alcohol problem. The differences of the prevalence of alcohol use disorder between AUDIT-K and CAGE suggest further study about standardization of scales for the alcohol problem in the elderly.