The NESARC is a nationally representative survey of the US general population sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Details of the study design and sampling are provided elsewhere [3, 23, 24]. The survey was conducted in two waves 3 years apart. In this report we only used data from wave 1 conducted in 2001–2002. The purpose of the NESARC was to explore the prevalence and correlates of AUD and other substance use and psychiatric disorders in a diverse nationally representative sample of the US population. The NESARC oversampled racial/ethnic minorities and young adults, and weighted the data to adjust for the unequal probabilities of selection and to provide nationally representative estimates. The response rate for NESARC wave 1 was 81%.
