Retirement and the Hidden Epidemic: The Complex Link Between Aging, Work Disengagement, and Substance Misuse and What To Do About It

Substance misuse among older adults in the United States is a major hidden health threat, with broad implications for the welfare and quality of life of those misusing alcohol and drugs, as well as their families. Although retirement is often viewed as playing a key role in the onset and exacerbation of older adult substance misuse, research findings are inconclusive. The book begins by conducting a critical review of that research, paying particular attention to the difficulty of capturing the etiological role of retirement in older adult substance misuse when the very nature of retirement is in flux. The book then presents findings from a 10-year, longitudinal study designed to address both this issue as well as some of the more methodological shortcomings of prior studies. In addition to examining the direct impact of retirement on older adult substance misuse and disentangling the confounding effects of aging, it examines how individual differences, shifting social networks, preretirement work factors, conditions in retirement, and the interactions among each of these may affect subsequent misuse. On the basis of these etiological insights, the book examines the efficacy of contemporary individual- and policy-level interventions and proposes several alternative approaches to prevention and treatment