Abstract
The scarce research on the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on mental health among older adults suggests a protective effect against depression. We prospectively examined the association between patterns of moderate alcohol consumption, depression and psychological distress, using information from 5,299 community-dwelling older adults from the ELSA and Seniors-ENRICA cohorts. A Mediterranean drinking pattern (MDP) was defined as moderate alcohol intake (<40 g/day for men; <24 g/day for women) with a preference for wine and drinking only with meals. Depression was ascertained with the 10-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-10), a self-report of clinically-diagnosed depression, or being on anti-depressant medication (Seniors-ENRICA); and with the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (ELSA). Psychological distress was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). Compared to never drinkers, moderate drinkers showed comparable scores on the ENRICA-GDS-10 (PRR (95%CI): 1.03 (0.84–1.26)), the ENRICA-GHQ-12 (0.88 (0.73–1.06)), the ELSA-CES-D (0.92 (0.79–1.06)) and the ELSA-GHQ-12 (0.75 (0.55–1.01). The MDP was not associated with the GDS-10 or GHQ-12 scores, or with clinically-diagnosed depression; however drinkers with a preference for wine showed an increased number of psychological distress symptoms (1.31 (1.03–1.66)). In conclusion, we found no consistent protective association between moderate alcohol consumption and depression in older adults.
Highlights
Among older adults, depression is the most common mental illness[1]
Given that the effects of alcohol on mental health might be context-specific, analyzing data from these two cohorts may facilitate determining whether any associations found differ between “Mediterranean” countries like Spain, where alcohol is traditionally used as a nutritional element and most drinking occurs during meals, and “Non-Mediterranean” countries like England, where alcohol is consumed in greater amounts and mainly used as a psychotropic-relaxant
According to the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) (GDS >3) and CESD (CESD >3) scores, at baseline 7.7% (Seniors-ENRICA) and 14.3% (ELSA) of participants had a diagnosis of depression
Summary
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, in 2015 the number of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) for depressive disorders in older adults ranged from 750 per 100,000 among those aged 80 and over to 1050 per 100,000 among those aged 60–652. Studies have seldom examined the psychological and mental health effects of light to moderate alcohol consumption, and the scarce longitudinal reports have rendered inconsistent results[14,15,16,17,18,19]. The main objective of this work was to examine the prospective association between moderate alcohol intake and depression or psychological distress in two cohorts of community-dwelling older adults: the Seniors-ENRICA (Study on Nutrition and Cardiovascular Risk in Spain) and the ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing).
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