The relationships between socioeconomic status, educational levels and alcohol consumption are complex. Particularly, while lower socioeconomic status is associated with a higher risk of alcohol dependence, our findings suggest that, among alcohol dependent subjects, individuals with the highest income have a younger age at onset of dependence. Others found no difference in socioeconomic status between subjects with early versus late onset substance use disorder (Clark et al., 1998). Considering the educational level, the literature raised contradictory findings, since a 10 years prospective follow-up study found that subjects with the highest educational level have the lowest risk of alcohol dependence (Harford et al., 2006), while another 5 years prospective work, men with the highest educational level exhibit the greatest increase in at-risk drinking from grade 12 to adulthood (Bingham et al., 2005). In the NESARC, we found that educational level is associated with an early age at onset among alcohol dependent subjects. Taken together, these findings suggest that socioeconomic and educational achievement may have protective effects against the development of alcohol dependence in general and in particular against the late onset form.
