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)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Extreme Heat and Alcohol Consumption in Older Adults: The Role of Early Life Experiences as Moderators
ABSTRACT
Objectives: 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. Conclusion: 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
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
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.