Almost 1/5 (17.7%) of persons developed alcohol dependence with 22.9% of men and 12.7% of women experiencing at least one episode of dependence in their lifetime (see Table 1). The mean age of onset of alcohol dependence was 21.61 years. Despite younger age of drinking initiation among men, there were no sex differences within race/ethnicity groups for age at first episode of dependence. However, Black men were significantly older than White men (F1, 715 = 19.13; p < 0.001) and Hispanic men (F1, 337 = 4.07; p = 0.044) at onset of dependence, and Hispanic men were older than White men (F1, 728 = 4.26; p = 0.039). Black women were significantly older than both White and Hispanic women, respectively (F1, 598 = 29.10; p < 0.001 and F1, 241 = 8.79; p = 0.003). While there was a trend for Hispanic women to be older than White women, the difference was not statistically significant (F1, 611 = 3.33; p = 0.069).
