As with all research, it is important to recognize caveats that apply to the current work. First, although the sample is relatively large and the follow ups were on average two decades, during the year of data collection outcomes were determined for only 60% of the subset of COGA subjects selected for analysis, and only 45% of those eligible were interviewed during the year of data collection (Munafò et al., 2017). Thus, although the current results resemble several other recent reports (e.g., Gonçalves et al., 2017; McCutcheon et al., 2017), the data presented here need to be reevaluated in the planned more intense follow up of a much larger COGA sample. Second, because the data presented here required personal interviews with participants regarding recent drinking practices and problems, deceased subjects could not be included in the current analyses and predictors of death and specific death causes are the subject of a separate paper. Third, all data were from self-reports without corroborating information. A fourth caveat is inherent in the COGA dataset where the original families were selected based on a
