most severely alcohol dependent individuals. Finally, 40% yet to be located subjects had a relatively severe addiction history, further contributing to the underrepresentation of highly affected individuals. Although fewer COGA subjects reported current drinking, a dramatically higher proportion of those aged 65+ reported high-risk drinking in the past 12 months (23%) than did their peers in the NESARC sample (3.8%). The main source of this discrepancy probably lies with the alcohol-dependence-based COGA sample versus the epidemiologically-based NESARC sample, which contained substantially fewer alcohol dependent subjects. In sum, relative to the general population, a smaller percentage of interviewed older COGA subjects were currently drinking, but those who did exhibited far greater levels of high-risk consumption. Schuckit et al. (2018) provide additional details about the characteristics and predictors of these older COGA pilot subjects’ alcohol involvement, classifying them into subgroups arrayed along a continuum of severity.
