In the NESARC Wave 1 sample, approximately 65 percent of respondents reported any past-year consumption and 51 percent reported consuming at least 12 drinks in the past year (Dawson et al. 2004). Further, 17.8 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively, reported symptoms and criteria indicating a diagnosis of lifetime and past-year alcohol abuse, and 12.5 and 3.8 percent, respectively, reported symptoms and criteria indicating a diagnosis of lifetime and past-year alcohol dependence (Grant et al. 2004; Hasin et al. 2007). Similar results were obtained in secondary analyses with the 2002 NSDUH sample, the survey for which data are available that corresponds most closely to the NESARC Wave 1 sample. In the 2002 NSDUH, approximately 88 percent of respondents reported any alcohol consumption in their lifetime and around 70 percent reported past-year consumption (Grucza et al. 2007). Thus, the differences in estimates are slight.
