The two outcome variables of interest in this study were: 1) incidence of new episodes of alcohol dependence during the follow-up period, and 2) persistence of alcohol dependence through wave 2 of the study. Participants who did not meet the criteria for alcohol dependence at baseline but who did meet the criteria during the 3-year follow-up period were defined as new onset or incident cases of alcohol dependence. For the incidence analyses, individuals with a history of alcohol abuse were not excluded because many individuals first develop alcohol abuse prior to dependence. In addition, a diagnosis of alcohol abuse at the time of the baseline interview was held constant in all multivariate analyses. In supplemental analyses examining incident alcohol abuse together with incident dependence as the outcome variable, among those that did not meet criteria at wave 1, the overall association was similar to that presented for alcohol dependence alone.
