title: Quantity-frequency and diary measures of alcohol consumption for elderly drinkers.
abstract: Three measures were studied for estimating alcohol consumption by elderly drinkers. The diary measure resulted in significantly greater reported daily alcohol consumption (p = .004) and number of drinks consumed per week (p = .07) compared with a 7-day and 28-day quantity-frequency measure. No differences were found between diary and Q-F measures in classifying elderly as drinkers versus nondrinkers, and heavy versus light drinkers. Likely factors contributing to the apparent advantage of the diary measure over the Q-F measures are that it offers elderly a prompt to recall, and that it provides a direct estimate of alcohol consumption based on "actual" versus "usual" alcohol use. Shortcomings of the retrospective diary are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of North Florida, College of Health, Jacksonville 32216.
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Werch
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006277:Health Fairs; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014342:Truth Disclosure