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Older Women Are Drinking More and More, Study Says

"Older women may be especially at risk for alcohol problems."

Most people grow out of binge drinking—usually at some point in their twenties because of mounting responsibilities and the consequences of a string of bad decisions—but a lot of people grow into it way later in life.

With the empty nest and loneliness that can accompany old age, it's not surprising that many elderly people turn to the bottle, perhaps for brief reprieve from the existential dread of the road behind being longer than the road ahead.

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Because of an aging baby-boomer population, health officials are already expecting a rise in heavy drinking among the elderly, but what is surprising is the fact that older women seem more prone to getting fadezies than their male counterparts.

A recent study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research looked at gender-specific trends in binge drinking among American adults over the age of 60. By looking at data from 65,303 individuals participating in the National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2014, authors were able to come to some pretty interesting and bleak conclusions about the drinking habits of said age group.

Specifically, they found that prevalence of binge drinking for men over the age of 60 is not expected to change at all in coming years, while the overall prevalence of drinking will rise by 0.7 percent. But for older women, the rate of binge drinking is expected to rise by an average of 3.7 percent per year, while the general prevalence will increase by 1.6 percent. In other words, significantly more older women will be binge drinking than men of the same age group.

"Our finding of upward trends in drinking among adults ages 60+, particularly women, suggests the importance of public health planning to meet future needs for alcohol-related programs," authors concluded, though they did not address what the actual cause of this spike could be.

But past research suggests a multitude of reasons why this trend exists and the many risk factors specific to women. "Older women may be especially at risk for alcohol problems because they are more likely than men to outlive their spouses and face other losses that may lead to loneliness and depression," the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found.

And those risks are not just emotional. "Physiologically, women are also at greater risk for alcohol–related health problems as they age," the NIAAA continues. "Because of these risks, alcohol use recommendations for older women generally are lower than those set for both older men and younger women."

So there you have it. If your mother or grandmother seems a bit down, you probably just need to visit them more—and maybe share a gin and tonic with them.