Resilience, depression and anxiety and hazardous alcohol use behaviour among community dwelling older adults

ABSTRACT

Introduction

We examined the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC, including factor structure. Secondly, we examined if resilience factors moderate the association between negative affect and hazardous alcohol use.

Method

The sample population consisted of 1,368 community-dwelling older adults. We used standardized questionnaires to collect self-reported data on alcohol use behaviour, depression and anxiety and resilience by using respectively the Alcohol Use Identification Test (AUDIT), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC).

Results

Of the total sample (N 1.368), 80.1% reported using alcohol. The total sample and the drinking sample reported, respectively, a mean of 65.75 (SD 15.40) and 65.79 (SD 15.90) on the CD-RISC. Concerning the CD-RISC, exploratory factor analysis presents four factors of which three with a good reliability. Moderation analyses reflects that older adults with higher levels of resilient characteristics didn’t report an association between negative affect and hazardous drinking. Alternatively, low resilient older adults did report an positive and significant association between negative affect and hazardous drinking.

Conclusion

The CD-RISC appeared to be a reliable instrument, containing three factors. In our sample, high resilience moderated the association between negative affect and hazardous drinking and may serve as a buffer against hazardous drinking.

KEYWORDS:

• Older adults
• hazardous drinking
• depression
• anxiety
• resilience

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the older adults for participating in this research and all the research assistants for collecting the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.