We previously developed and validated a longitudinal phenotype for harmful alcohol use using statistical trajectories of AUDIT-C (8). In a sample of 1,851 Veterans with or without HIV infection, we compared longitudinal AUDIT-C metrics on the magnitude of association with phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a direct alcohol biomarker measured in blood. In a subsample of AAs, we also used the frequency of the minor allele rs2066702, a single nucleotide polymorphism in ADH1B, which encodes the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase 1B as a criterion measure. AUDIT-C trajectories were more strongly associated with both PEth and rs2066702 than either the highest AUDIT-C score or the score closest in time to the PEth blood draw. These findings demonstrated the value of a longitudinal measure to characterize alcohol use, as it is typically collected in general medical settings.
