Respondents who reported ever consuming at least one full alcoholic drink in Waves 1, 3, or 4 were asked, “How old were you when you had your very first full drink?” For those women who did not endorse any alcohol use at Wave 4 (or in any prior interview) and completed the Wave 5 interview, we used Wave 5 data to determine lifetime alcohol use status and, among non-abstainers, to estimate age at first use. Wave 5 respondents were asked, “When was the last time that you had a drink with alcohol in it?” Those who responded “never” were coded as non-drinkers. For all others, age at first drink was estimated by subtracting 2 years (the approximate time between Waves 4 and 5) from age at the time of the Wave 5 interview. This method was used to estimate age at first drink in 237 participants. (A total of 6.7% of respondents were lifelong abstainers.)
