Moderate drinking may promote health in older women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women who are drinking within the recommended limits of one to two glasses of spirits daily are more likely to survive and more likely to remain in good health than women who do not drink, suggest new data from a long-term study of Australian women.

"There is concern that older women may need to drink less alcohol than recommended for other women," study leader Dr. Julie Byles noted in an email to Reuters Health.

"We wanted to see whether there was any evidence that elderly women who drank one or two glasses of alcohol everyday were at higher risk than women who drank less than this," she explained.

"Our findings indicate that the recommended limits of one to two drinks per day seem appropriate for women aged 70-80 years," reported Byles, who is director of the Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing at The University of Newcastle in Callaghan, Australia.

The findings stem from 12,432 women who were between 70 and 75 years old in 1996 who are participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The women, for the most part, maintained stable levels of alcohol consumption during the study.

According to the report, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, between 1996 and 2002, women who did not drink and those who drank rarely were much more likely to die than women who drank one to two drinks per day, 3 to 6 days per week.

Moreover, the surviving teetotalers had poorer health-related quality of life than those who drank low or moderate levels of alcohol. Nondrinkers also had lower mental health and social functioning scores on standard tests than did drinkers.

One study limitation was that the subjects' drinking behaviors were based on self reports and the authors also had no measure of what the women drank. But the results of a recent cross-sectional study of elderly Australian women indicated that most favored wine.

It's important to note, Byles said, that the current findings are based on women who were drinking at the start of the study, when they were 70 years old. "So, if you are 70 and enjoy a drink (in moderation), then our data suggest that this practice is safe to continue and may even be beneficial," Byles said.

"Of course some individuals may have to stop drinking if they have particular medical reasons and should follow the advice of their doctor," she added.

Furthermore, no evidence was found to suggest that nondrinkers should take up drinking, the authors note. A recent study found that nondrinkers who began to drink received no health benefits, but heavy drinkers who cut down improved their outcomes.

The researchers also pointed out that it is not clear that the benefits are derived from the alcohol, the wine or other factors. Women who drink may derive health benefits from social interactions, they suggest. Also, a Danish study found that female wine drinkers tended to have healthier diets, which can influence health outcomes.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, September 2006.