The prevalence of potential alcohol–drug interactions in older adults

Figures & data

Table I. Characteristics of respondents with medication data (n = 1142) and their alcohol consumption.

Characteristic	At-risk users (n = 90)	Moderate users (n = 625)	Minimal or non-users (n = 427)	p-value^1
Gender: male	76.7	39.5	20.8	< 0.001
Mean age	73.5	77.4	81.8	< 0.001
Marital status: Married or common-law marriage Widowed Single, unmarried, or divorced	74.0 14.4 11.5	58.7 29.0 12.2	38.0 47.9 14.1	< 0.001
Education: < 7 years 7–12 years > 12 years	14.4 43.3 42.2	26.1 52.6 21.3	39.0 46.0 15.0	< 0.001
Income: Good Moderate Poor	42.2 55.6 2.2	35.9 61.1 3.1	27.4 68.1 4.5	0.013
Self-reported health:				< 0.001
Healthy or quite healthy Unhealthy or very sick Charlson comorbidity index (SD)	80.0 20.0 1.0 (1.0)	81.9 18.1 0.8 (1.0)	62.0 38.0 1.2 (1.3)	< 0.001
Mean number of medications (SD)	4.2 (2.5)	4.0 (2.6)	5.4 (3.4)	< 0.001

Note: ¹Differences between the groups in categorical variables were tested with a chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test and with non-normally distributed continuous variables with the Kruskall–Wallis test.

Table II. Distribution of diagnoses among the groups using various amounts of alcohol (n = 1142).

	At-risk users (n = 90) %	Moderate users (n = 625) %	Minimal or non-users (n = 427) %	p-value^1 Crude	Adjusted*
Prior myocardial infarction	5.6	5.4	12.1	0.005	0.010
Coronary heart disease	24.3	28.5	43.4	< 0.001	0.012
Hypertension	51.9	53.4	58.1	0.345	0.526
Prior stroke	1.5	2.3	5.8	0.034	0.0085
Asthma	16.9	15.2	21.2	0.127	0.314
Osteoarthritis	38.2	40.7	50.7	0.013	0.364
Diabetes Dementia	25.7 4.5	16.9 7.0	25.5 14.2	0.010 0.002	0.0087 0.262
Depression	10.8	13.5	23.3	0.001	0.089
Prior or current diagnosis of cancer	20.5	18.2	22.7	0.306	0.40

Notes: ¹Differences between the groups were tested with a chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. *Adjusted for gender and age.

Table III. Prevalence of use of some potential alcohol-interactive drugs among different alcohol consumption groups (n = 1142).

Medication	At-risk users (n = 90) %	Moderate users (n = 625) %	Minimal or non-users (n = 427) %	p-value^1 Crude	Adjusted*
Metronidazole (J01XD01) Tinidatzole (J01XD02) Disulfiram (N07BB01) Griseofulvin (D01AA08) Prazosin (C02CA01) Tacrolimus (D11AH01) Antipsychotics (N05A) Antidepressants (N06A)	0 0 0 0 0 0 2.2 4.4	0 0 0 0 0.2 0 2.1 7.0	0.2 0 0 0 0.2 0 3.7 10.8	– – – – 0.88 – 0.252 0.038	– – – – – – 0.575 0.181
Anxiolytics (N05B)	6.7	3.7	7.5	0.022	0.053
Hypnotics/sedatives (N05C)	11.1	10.6	17.8	0.003	0.175
Antiepileptics (N03A)	5.6	1.8	3.3	0.062	0.091
Opioids (N02A) Hydroxyzine (N05BB01)	3.3 1.1	0.8 0.2	1.6 0.2	0.108 0.254	0.159 0.246
Warfarin (B01AA03)	11.1	9.3	15.7	0.007	0.024
Insulin (A10AB01)	1.1	2.6	3.5	0.392	0.144
Sulfonylureas (A10BB03)	6.7	3.8	6.8	0.084	0.040
Metformin (A10BA02)	13.3	5.6	8.4	0.015	0.0089

Notes: ¹Differences between the groups were tested with a chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. *Adjusted for gender and age.