PREVENTING HARMFUL AND HAZARDOUS DRINKING IN THE ELDERLY
Funded Grant
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The candidate, Alison Moore, M.D., M.P.H., seeks support for further training in alcohol-related research regarding the elderly, specifically identifying alcohol-related risks in older persons, and developing interventions for use by physicians and their older drinking patients to reduce such risks. Her long- term goals are to maintain an academic position with the goal of becoming a leader in health services research regarding alcohol and the elderly. Dr. Moore is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at UCLA and a faculty member in the UCLA Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, a program recognized as a national leader in providing clinical care for older persons, teaching professionals, and conducting research. Her research experience includes: developing and testing measures to improve identification and intervention regarding common problems in the elderly; investigating the epidemiology of alcohol use and misuse in the elderly and, developing and testing an instrument identifying older persons whose use of alcohol may be harmful or hazardous. Dr. Moore's sponsors are Drs. David Reuben, Ron Hays, and Thomas Babor. The sponsors have extensive experience in psychometrics, alcohol epidemiology alcohol-related health services research, and designing measures to identify geriatric conditions and interventions to improve health and functioning of older persons. As part of her training activities, Dr. Moore will participate in a series of courses, seminars and tutorials to enhance her knowledge of research and clinical issues in alcohol health services research and addiction medicine. The primary objective of her proposed research is to further validate the Alcohol-Related Problems Survey (ARPS) and its scoring system as a standard for harmful, hazardous and non- hazardous drinking in the elderly. The criterion standard will consist of: 1) a structured clinical interview (including selected CIDI modules and the alcohol Timeline Followback; 2) open-ended questions about alcohol-related risks; 3) a brief physical examination focusing on risk of or evidence for alcohol- related harm; 4) information from medical records; and 5) interviews of collateral informants. A secondary objective of the proposed research is to develop and pilot test interventions to be used by at-risk (i.e., harmful or hazardous) drinking older persons and their physicians to reduce risky drinking.
