Some prior analyses based on IRT models have suggested that a consumption-based criterion based on frequency of drinking 5+/4+ drinks might be a useful addition to represent the lower end of the AUD severity continuum (Saha et al., 2007), although the inclusion of such a measure would substantially affect prevalence estimates and might affect treatment eligibility for some population subgroups (Keyes et al., 2009). Other research has indicated that inclusion of a measure of heavy episodic drinking (HED) did not improve model fit (Beseler et al., 2009) or that it resulted in deviations from linearity in the associations between AUD severity and the outcomes of family history and early initiation of drinking (Hasin and Beseler, 2009). The strong correlations noted between AUD severity scores and frequency of drinking 5+ drinks in this analysis supported the inherent relationship between HED and AUD and suggest that a measure of HED would not be out of place as an indicator of AUD severity. However, the correlations were even stronger for two other consumption measures, average daily volume of ethanol intake and largest quantity
