Moderate alcohol consumption in older adults is associated with better cognition and well-being than abstinence.

摘要

Sir-We were interested in reading the report by Lang et al. . The findings, which accord with other work on the protective effect of moderate alcohol use, are encouraging. However, it is important that the context should not be lost and that this does not distract from the serious impact of alcohol use (and other substances) on older people.First, as the authors admit, subjects who formed the basis of this study were those living in households only, i.e. older people in hospitals, residential and nursing homes were excluded. The group under study is, therefore, a particular subsection of the ageing population-those who can live independently.Second, there is no mention of the age range, for example, many studies on older people separate the 50 to 64-year-old age group from those over 65 years.