Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Aging
Date Submitted: May 3, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: May 14, 2025 - Jul 9, 2025
Date Accepted: Feb 13, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Extreme Heat and Alcohol Consumption in Older Adults: The Role of Early Life Experiences as Moderators
ABSTRACT
Background:
Older adults in the United States are exhibiting increasing rates of alcohol use, high-risk drinking, and alcohol use disorders. While a growing body of literature has examined the impact of climate change-induced extreme heat on mental health outcomes, this study contributes novel insight by focusing specifically on alcohol use among older adults.
Objective:
This study examines the relationship between extreme heat and alcohol consumption among older Americans, emphasizing the moderating effects of early-life experiences within a life course framework.
Methods:
Using data from over 20,000 individuals aged 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study (1996–2018), we analyzed the impact of extreme heat (>95 °F) on alcohol consumption, considering early-life factors such as parental substance abuse, law enforcement encounters, and relationships with fathers.
Results:
Extreme heat exposure significantly increased alcohol consumption (0.21% per additional extreme heat day, p<0.001). A positive father-child relationship buffered this effect, while adverse early-life experiences, including law enforcement encounters (0.08%, p<0.001) and parental substance abuse (0.05%, p<0.001), exacerbated it.
Conclusions:
Given the link between extreme heat and alcohol use in older adults, further longitudinal research and targeted interventions are needed to mitigate associated health risks.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.