title: The effect of retirement on alcohol consumption: results from the US Health and Retirement Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prior research examining the association between retirement and alcohol consumption is inconsistent with respect to salience, direction and magnitude. Reasonable conceptual arguments for both positive (e.g. coping, introduction of leisure time) and negative (e.g. severance of work-related social relationships) changes further complicate investigations of this critical association, as do differences in study design, national setting and measurement of alcohol use.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective longitudinal study analyses 2-year wave-pairs drawn from seven waves (14 years) of data from the US Health and Retirement Study to assess the effect of complete retirement on weekly alcohol consumption (n = 9979 observations; 4674 unique participants). We use multiple regression analysis in a two-period follow-up design and account for potential selection bias and reverse causality not addressed in prior research on this topic.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We find that retirement is positively associated with subsequent weekly alcohol consumption for men who reported drinking at both follow-up and the prior study wave (β = 1.9, 95% confidence interval = 0.43-3.36). No association was observed among women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that health care professionals should monitor the drinking habits of retired men, as older individuals are particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of heavy alcohol use.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Economics, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Public Health, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Steier
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Economics, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA3 School of Public Health, City University of New York, New York, NY 10035, USA william.gallo@hunter.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: William T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Gallo
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012179:Retirement; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology