The commonly used FH measures of AUD fall under dichotomous or density measures. Dichotomous measures often categorize individuals as FH+ and FH- defined by presence or absence of an AUD in the father/mother and/or among first- and/or second-degree relatives (Schuckit and Smith, 1996; Cservenka and Nagel, 2012). On the other hand, density measures are more complex scores that account for the number and type of family members who have the disorder. Several variants of density measures such as the Family Expression of Alcoholism (Zucker et al., 1994), the Family History Density (Stoltenberg et al., 1998), and other alternatives (e.g. Cservenka and Nagel, 2012) have been used in extant research. Despite such variability in measurement of FH, very few studies have examined the comparative utility of dichotomous and density measures.
