One possibility is that the discrepant rates of lifetime abuse between the samples is limited to only a given age cohort. Until this point, we have only discussed overall rates of lifetime abuse but have not considered differences in prevalence among age cohorts in NLAES and NESARC. Prevalence results stratified by age in both samples are presented in Figure 1. As seen in the top panel of Figure 1, past-12 month rates of AUD appear to be similar between NLAES and NESARC in every cohort. However, in all age cohorts, rates of lifetime AUD appear to be higher in NESARC than in NLAES, especially in older age cohorts. In the middle panel of Figure 1, it can be seen that past-12 month and lifetime prevalences of dependence are largely similar between the two datasets across age. However, as illustrated in the bottom panel of Figure 1, lifetime rates of alcohol abuse are substantially higher in NESARC across all age cohorts compared to NLAES. Thus, it appears that, for some unspecified reason, differences in lifetime rates across the two interviews vary
