BOSTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Overall alcohol use -- particularly consumption of beer -- is declining in the United States, but alcohol disorders are not, U.S. researchers said.

Yuqing Zhang of Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues examined 50 years of data and found several changes in alcohol intake, but no change in alcohol use disorders.

The study, published in The American Journal of Medicine, found that U.S. residents are drinking significantly less beer and more wine, while hard liquor use has remained fairly constant. However, more people now report that they are non-drinkers.

People born later in the 20th century drink more moderately than older people and as people age, individual alcohol consumption goes down.

The researchers examined 8,000 records of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest population-based study of U.S. adults ever conducted, to measure alcohol consumption over 50 years.

The proportion of people who developed alcohol-related disorders, such as alcoholic cardiomyopathy -- habitual use of alcohol weakens the heart muscle so that it cannot pump blood efficiently -- or alcoholic cirrhosis remained nearly constant across all age groups.