Alcohol consumption, life course transitions and health in later life - Keele University
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Alcohol consumption, life course transitions and health in later life

Professor Clare Holdsworth has been awarded a research grant under ESRC's Secondary Data Analysis Initiative.  Through funding, Clare will lead the project entitled 'Alcohol consumption, life course transitions and health in later life', working in collaboration with colleagues from UCL.  The research undertaken will extend understanding of the patterns of alcohol consumption at older ages; how drinking is associated with health conditions and other life course events and the risk factors for excessive drinking in later life.  Excessive drinking will be defined with reference to two criteria: binge drinking (amount drunk on one particular day) and exceeding the weekly recommended alcohol consumption.  Using longitudinal data the project will analyse the stability of drinking behaviours over time and how these patterns interact with key transition events, in housing, relationships, employment and family.  A particular emphasis will be the relationship between drinking and health conditions among the elderly, to include both a modelling of the relationship between stability of drinking behaviours and health conditions, as well as potential impact of drinking on medication.  The project will develop a practice-informed modelling approach that will engage with users at all stages of the research and will also raise awareness of the potential for secondary service data to support policy initiatives directed towards individual health behaviours and how these are shaped over the life course.