individuals only or to combining alcohol and other substance use disorders into a single group (e.g., Simon et al., 2006). NESARC’s large sample size allowed for categorization of respondents into normal weight, overweight, and obese groups, for separate analysis of associations of BMI category with alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, any drug use disorder, cocaine, marijuana, and opiate use disorders, and nicotine dependence, and for analysis of interactions between BMI and gender. While Pickering et al. (2007) examined associations between BMI and past-year substance use disorders in a paper focusing on associations of BMI with a variety of past-year Axis I and II disorders, the current paper extends their findings by also examining associations with risk for lifetime substance use disorders. In addition, the present study also identifies interaction effects of BMI and gender on risk for substance use disorders and evaluates effects on specific drug use disorders beyond the broader class of any drug use disorder.
