The associations of AFD with the incidence of alcohol dependence and specific dependence criteria did not demonstrate any significant modification by age at baseline. There was, however, an interaction between gender and initiation of drinking at ages 15-17 (p = .037), which indicated no increased risk of dependence for males who commenced drinking at those ages but a significantly increased risk for females (OR = 1.54, data not shown). This interaction did not extend to any of the individual criteria for alcohol dependence, although it fell just short of significance for continued drinking despite adverse physical/psychological effects (p=.064).
