Wine gets better with age, but adults’ alcohol tolerance doesn’t.
A recent UF study tested the effects of alcohol on adults’ driving skills and compared how participants in two age ranges, 25 to 35 and 55 to 70, performed.
It was conducted by Sara Jo Nixon, a UF professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology, along with graduate research assistant Alfredo Sklar.
The study tested adults of similar height and weight who had consumed the same amount of alcohol with the only difference being participants’ ages.
The research began by performing a baseline assessment in which the participants did not consume any alcohol.
“Across all the measures, we saw that the older adults’ were impaired to younger adults’, and that again is before they had any alcohol,” said Sklar, 29.
Next the participants were given low to moderate doses of alcohol, and results showed that the older adults were more significantly affected by the alcohol.
The lower doses that pushed older adults’ blood alcohol level to 0.065 produced effects in their driving.
“That dose seemed to exhibit jerkier steering and more variability in their speed,” he said.
He said there’s no difference in how younger and older adults metabolize alcohol because both groups were given the same amount.
“Younger and older adults were at the same intoxication blood alcohol level, and we still see these differences on top of that,” he said.
Sklar said his research team wants to raise awareness with this study and draw attention to the fact that there still might be some risks to having one or two drinks.
“Even minimal amounts, definitely below the 0.08 level, do have real implications for driving safety,” Sklar said.
He said many studies have touted the benefits of drinking for older adults such as from consuming a glass of wine a day, but not much is said about the acute risks.
“A lot of times when people look at the risks of drinking alcohol, they’re looking at much higher dose levels,” Sklar said. “Besides just car accidents, you have unintentional injuries that occur at higher rates at lower levels of alcohol consumption.”
Robert Webber, a 49-year-old UF alumnus, is a marketing manager for a beer distributing company in Ocala.
He said he frequently takes new product samples home with him, so his home is usually stocked with beer.
“I work with it every day, and I still feel a buzz after a couple,” Webber said.
Judith Nogues, a 42-year-old Micanopy resident, said she’s in touch with her limits after consuming alcohol.
“I like to drink wine every now and then at home, but I never drive afterward,” she said. “I know how I get after one glass.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 3/12/2014 under the headline "Older-adult drivers more impaired by alcohol, UF study says"]
Patrons gather at Mother’s Pub and Grill on Tuesday evening. A recent UF study found that alcohol tolerance gets worse with age.
