Reducing binge drinking harm in middle-aged and elderly adults.

摘要

To the Editor: In their article, published in the October 2009 issue of the Journal, Dan G. Blazer, M.D., Ph.D., and Li-Tzy Wu, Sc.D., demonstrated that more than 14% of men and 3% of women in the >=65-year-old age group reported binge drinking (1). Therefore, alcohol binge drinking among middle-aged and elderly adults seems to be of public health concern, as concluded by the authors.Binge drinking is characterized by the consumption of alcohol leading to intoxication (drinking to get drunk), often measured as having more than five drinks on the same occasion (2). The costs of this drinking pattern include increased risk for numerous acute adverse health and social events (e.g., unintentional and intentional injuries, high blood pressure, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, liver disease, neurological damage, poor control of diabetes) (1, 3). These health costs may be particularly aggravated by a binge pattern of alcohol drinking in later life when natural body defenses decrease.