Objectives

To compare 12-month outpatient healthcare expenditures of at-risk and not-at-risk drinkers aged 60 and older.

Design

Secondary analysis of data from Project Senior Health and Alcohol Risk Education, a cluster, randomized trial to test the efficacy of an intervention to reduce at-risk drinking.

Setting

Seven primary care clinics in or near Santa Barbara, California.

Participants

Current drinkers aged 60 and older who completed a baseline survey (N = 2,779) and did not receive the study intervention, including 628 at-risk drinkers and 2,151 not-at-risk drinkers.

Measurements

Comparisons of at-risk and not-at-risk drinkers for baseline demographic characteristics, health indicators, alcohol consumption, and adjusted and unadjusted outpatient healthcare expenditures incurred over 12 months after baseline.

Results

At-risk drinkers were younger, more often male, and more likely to be married and had higher education and incomes than not-at-risk drinkers. Unadjusted 12-month mean outpatient healthcare expenditures were $1,333 ± 2,973 for at-risk drinkers and $1,417 ± 2,952 for the not-at-risk drinkers. There were no statistically significant differences in expenditures between groups before and after controlling for sociodemographic and health characteristics.

Conclusion

In this short-term study, no adjusted differences in healthcare expenditures were observed between at-risk and not-at-risk older drinkers. Future study is warranted to determine the role of at-risk drinking in long-term healthcare expenditures in older adults.

Objectives

To compare 12-month outpatient healthcare expenditures of at-risk and not-at-risk drinkers aged 60 and older.

Design

Secondary analysis of data from Project Senior Health and Alcohol Risk Education, a cluster, randomized trial to test the efficacy of an intervention to reduce at-risk drinking.

Setting

Seven primary care clinics in or near Santa Barbara, California.

Participants

Current drinkers aged 60 and older who completed a baseline survey (N = 2,779) and did not receive the study intervention, including 628 at-risk drinkers and 2,151 not-at-risk drinkers.

Measurements

Comparisons of at-risk and not-at-risk drinkers for baseline demographic characteristics, health indicators, alcohol consumption, and adjusted and unadjusted outpatient healthcare expenditures incurred over 12 months after baseline.

Results

At-risk drinkers were younger, more often male, and more likely to be married and had higher education and incomes than not-at-risk drinkers. Unadjusted 12-month mean outpatient healthcare expenditures were $1,333 ± 2,973 for at-risk drinkers and $1,417 ± 2,952 for the not-at-risk drinkers. There were no statistically significant differences in expenditures between groups before and after controlling for sociodemographic and health characteristics.

Conclusion

In this short-term study, no adjusted differences in healthcare expenditures were observed between at-risk and not-at-risk older drinkers. Future study is warranted to determine the role of at-risk drinking in long-term healthcare expenditures in older adults.

Objective

To examine variation by race and gender in the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status and walking among community-dwelling older adults.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Setting

Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal population-based cohort.

Participants

4,849 adults, aged > 65 years.

Measurements

Participants reported the number of city blocks walked in the prior week. Neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) was measured at the level of the census tract. Negative binominal regression models were constructed to test the association between NSES and blocks walked. In the fully adjusted models, we included two-way and three-way interaction terms among race, gender, and NSES.

Results

In adjusted analyses, among White residents in the lowest NSES quartile (most disadvantaged), men walked 64% more than women (P<.001), while in the highest NSES (most advantaged), men walked 43% more than women (P<.001). Among African American residents in the lowest NSES quartile, men walked 196% more blocks than women (P<.001).

Conclusions

Female gender is more strongly associated with walking for African Americans than for Whites in low SES neighborhoods but had a similar association with walking for both African Americans and Whites in high SES neighborhoods.