US News

BOOMER BOOZE BINGE

A significant percentage of people older than 50 are binge drinking, according to a Duke University Medical Center survey, and experts fear the trend could cause severe health problems for baby boomers.

Twenty-two percent of men and 9 percent of women 50 to 64 reported drinking five or more drinks at one time during the past month, according to the survey published by the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The survey showed 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women in the same age group consumed two or more drinks per day.

In the 65-and-older age group, 14 percent of men and 3 percent of women engaged in binge drinking.

Drinking is more likely to compound health problems among older people as the body’s natural immunities are weakened, said Dr. Dan Blazer, the study’s lead author and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke.