deceased, consistent with Hypothesis 1. These family connections, which are an integral part of COGA’s design, helped counterbalance the constraints imposed by the short time frame of the pilot study, as well as the challenges associated with following subjects with a history of alcohol dependence. As suggested by others (Faden et al., 2004; Farabee et al., 2016; Stouthamer-Loeber et al., 1992), investigators conducting follow-up studies with long latencies may benefit from utilizing a multi-pronged approach that includes family connections, when available. Two of the baseline factors that were negatively associated with locating subjects – a prior history of other substance use disorders and ASPD – are consistent with other studies (c.f., Koloski et al., 2013). However, sensitivity analyses indicated that these two factors, associated with a more severe course of illness, were no longer significant after controlling for baseline age. Our intention was to provide an initial descriptive look at living subjects by age group at follow-up rather than conduct analyses that adjust for other baseline characteristics, which we acknowledge is an important step in later analyses with more complete samples. Readers should view the current findings as provisional, given that they are based on a subset of this sample.
