Alcohol use disorder, and other substance use disorders are often misunderstood and stigmatized. The concept that there are both genetic and environmental contributions to risk for AUD and its outcomes can be difficult to explain. Polygenic risk can also be challenging to communicate, and can lead to unrealistic expectations of what genomic medicine can do for the treatment and prevention of AUD. To provide a community‐facing forum for sharing our own research findings and also provide summaries of the state of scientific knowledge in the field of alcohol research, COGA has developed a series of resources for the public to understand how genetic and environmental factors contribute to the development of alcohol use problems. These were developed in collaboration with digital communication specialists and include short videos, text descriptions, interactive graphical elements, and key take‐aways, and can be found at cogastudy.org. An accompanying blog provides an overview of new findings with an eye towards public communication.
