The NESARC-III target population was the US noninstitutionalized civilian population 18 years or older, including residents of selected group quarters (eg, group homes, workers’ dormitories). As detailed elsewhere,19 we used probability sampling to select respondents randomly. Primary sampling units were individual counties or groups of contiguous counties; secondary sampling units, groups of US Census–defined blocks; and tertiary sampling units, households within the secondary sampling units. Finally, eligible adults within sampled households were randomly selected. We oversampled Hispanic, black, and Asian respondents, and in households with at least 4 eligible individuals who were ethnic or racial minorities, 2 respondents were selected (n = 1661). The total sample size consisted of 36 309 respondents. The screener- and person-level response rates were 72.0% and 84.0%, respectively, yielding a total NESARC-III response rate of 60.1%, comparable to those of most current US national surveys.16,20 Data were collected from April 2012 through June 2013 and analyzed in October 2014.
