Heavy drinking rose more than 36% among Americans ages 50 to 64 from 2018 to 2024, even as Gen Z and millennials drank less and overall use edged down.
Fox News reported that a University of Southern California/Keck Medicine study found a sharp split by age in U.S. alcohol habits. Adults in their 50s and early 60s drank more. Younger adults pulled back.
The findings, published Sept. 21 in Annals of Internal Medicine, rest on self-reported answers from the National Health Interview Survey. Researchers tracked 114,352 U.S. adults from 2018 to 2024. Overall drinking stayed above pre-pandemic levels even after a recent dip.
Lead author Brian P. Lee, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, called the latest drop a hopeful sign, not a settled trend.
"And we have two years of decline after four years of increases, so I'd describe this as a promising turn rather than an established trend."
From 2018 to 2024, alcohol use among adults ages 50 to 64 rose by nearly 4%. Heavy drinking in that group jumped by more than 36%.
Heavy drinking meant five or more drinks in a day, or 15 or more in a week, for men in the prior year. For women, it meant at least four drinks in a day or eight in a week.
From 2022 to 2024, the picture flipped for the country as a whole. Alcohol use fell by nearly 2% across all ages. Heavy drinking fell by more than 8%.
Gen Z adults cut alcohol use by more than 5%. Millennials drank about 17% less over that same two-year span. Men reduced overall drinking more than women, 2.4% versus 1.1%. Women still posted a larger drop in heavy drinking, 9% compared with 7.7% for men.
Lee stressed a lasting gap for women. Their heavy drinking climbed more than men’s during the pandemic and remains elevated.
"Women’s heavy drinking rose more than men's during the pandemic and is still about 13% above where it was in 2018."
He added a clinical warning tied to that number.
"Women develop liver damage at lower levels of drinking than men, so that number carries more weight than it looks."
Lee also flagged the study’s main limit: people understate their own drinking. The true levels are likely higher than the survey shows. The research, funded in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institutes of Health, can map the change. It cannot explain the motives.
"It also can't tell us why drinking changed, only that it did."
Dr. Chris Tuell, clinical director of addiction services at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, did not work on the study. He told Fox News Digital why the 50-to-64 window is a high-risk stretch.
"As we approach our 50s and 60s, we start reflecting on our lives, and changes start to happen."
Tuell pointed to loneliness, political polarization, and broken social ties. He said one in four people will face a mental health problem, depression, anxiety, loss, or grief, at a stage of life when many already feel exposed.
"And it's at a time where a person might feel very vulnerable."
Health trouble piles on. New aches, chronic pain, or a serious diagnosis can push people toward the bottle as a short-term fix. Retirement removes daily structure for others.
"I wake up and something I've done every day for many, many years is no longer happening. So I'm more bored. What do I do with my time? This is unfortunately a perfect storm for things like substance use."
Aging also changes the body’s response. The same pour hits harder than it did a few years earlier because metabolism slows.
"What I used to drink maybe five years ago... that same amount now can affect me differently, because I'm not metabolizing it like I used to."
Lee’s medical point was blunt. Evidence does not show a safe level of alcohol. Cancer and liver risk rise even at low intake. Advanced liver disease can stay silent until it is advanced. Catching alcohol-related damage early gives the body a better chance to reverse it. He urged adults, especially those over 50 who drink more than they did before 2020, to ask a doctor about liver health “even if nothing feels wrong.”
"There are clear increases in cancer and liver risk with alcohol, even at low levels."
Tuell described sleep harm in plain terms. A normal sleeper cycles four to five times a night. With drinking, that often falls to two or three. Rest suffers. Relationships, hobbies, and work can suffer next.
Tuell boiled addiction warning signs into three checks: control, compulsion, and constant thought.
Loss of control means the person can no longer manage the behavior. Compulsion means continuing despite clear costs, job, marriage, or other losses on the line. The third flag is fixation: alcohol as the first thought in the morning or the last at night.
"I can’t stop doing it. I continue to do it despite the negative consequences. Knowing that I could lose my job, I could lose my marriage, I could lose lots of things in my life, I do it anyway."
He rejected the idea that later life is too late for change. He has treated patients in their 80s who still had years ahead. Aging brings physical, emotional, and psychological shifts. Ignoring the bottle does not make those shifts safer.
Younger Americans are drinking less. Many in midlife are not. The survey numbers are self-reported and likely low. The health bill, liver, cancer, sleep, and family, does not care about the trend line’s press release. Personal responsibility still starts with an honest count of what is in the glass.
