No differences were found between those who agreed to an in-person interview and those who did not after screening on age, sex, or problem severity characteristics, and prevalence rates as well as characteristics of problem drinkers were similar to those in studies using in-person interviews in the same county and in the U.S. National Alcohol Survey (Cherpitel, 1992 ; Tam et al., 1996; Weisner et al., 1995; Weisner and Schmidt, 1995a). The general population sample was interviewed in private locations, such as in respondents’ homes, by interviewers who also conducted the interviews with respondents in the treatment sample, using a comparable instrument. Human Subjects approval was obtained from the Public Health Institute’s Internal Review Board.
