Our study provides mixed support for combining across mild and moderate AUD. In the cross-sectional cohort, differences between severe and moderate AUD were more pronounced than between moderate and mild AUD. However, endorsement of high-risk criteria was notably lower in those with mild vs moderate AUD, and in the longitudinal cohort, hazards of progressing to severe AUD from mild or low-risk mild-to-moderate AUD were much lower than hazards for moderate or high-risk mild-to-moderate AUD, which were largely equivalent. These findings are generally consistent with research suggesting that mild AUD may more accurately reflect temporally limited drinking problems consistent with endorsement of less severe criteria.49,50,51,52
