Alcohol and older American Indians.

Abstract

THE STUDY BY Barker and Kramer (Alcohol Consumption among Older Urban American Indians) that appears in this issue has been conducted at a propitious time. Little has been known about the drinking practices of older American Indians, in part due to their small numbers heretofore. In recent years, however, the number of older American Indian people has been increasing. More American Indian people have been living healthier lifestyles and have benefited from preventive and therapeutic health services. The special familial, spiritual and cultural roles of clan elders in many American Indian groups place them in a powerful position to influence the future health and social development of their people (Red Horse, 1980). Consequently, the Barker and Kramer article informs American Indian leaders, as well as planners in the majority society, regarding a major AmericanIndian resource, the family-community elder. These data replicated the findings in other groups of nonNative American elderly people (i.e., the percentage of abstainers was high and the level of drinking decreased with age). These synchronic data did not tell us whether the heavier drinkers failed to survive into more advanced years or reduced their drinking with age. In either event, abstinence and modest drinking became the hallmarks of older American Indians, as has occurred in other ethnic groups. This finding is reassuring in light of the tendency to view American Indian alcoholism as somehow esoteric, or even bizarre, because of the high rates demonstrated by many (not all) American Indian groups and the low treatment response in several followup studies (e.g., Boehnlein et al., 1993; Dick et al., 1993; Gurnee et al., 1990; Leung et al., 1993). In fact, American Indian alcoholism has long resembled alcoholism among other peoples in many.ways (e.g., Becker et al., 1992; Westermeyer, 1992, 1994). Two methodological spects of this study, which might be considered limiting or atypical by traditional methodologists, were especially impressive to this reader. First, the authors used a convenience sample, rather than a sample carefully drawn from a census tract, or a telephone book, or a township map. Virtually everyone who has conducted research among American Indian people outside of institutional settings (such as schools, hospitals, the military) has had to depend upon convenience or snowball sampling. This problem has ensued from the following historical anomalies: