Table 1.

Characteristics of the study sample by drinking status for men (n = 8950) from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III, 2012–2013.

Characteristic	Abstainer	Current drinker non-reducer	Current drinker reducer	Former drinker
Sample size	944	4207	2737	1062
Continuous variables, mean (95% CI)
Age at interview (yr)	36.3 (35.4–37.2)	36.7 (36.2–37.1)	38.8 (38.3–39.4)	47.6 (46.7–48.4)
Age began drinking the most (yr)	–	28.6 (28.4–28.9)	22.5 (22.2–22.9)	21.8 (21.2–22.4)
Average ethanol intake (oz/day) during the heaviest drinking period	–	0.58 (0.55–0.61)	2.52 (2.43–2.62)	1.11 (1.02–1.20)
Average ethanol intake (oz/day) during the past 12 months	–	0.55 (0.52–0.56)	0.68 (0.64–0.71)	–
Categorical variables, %
Race/ethnicity	33.7	42.6	62.0	49.4
White	30.6	23.0	14.8	21.2
Black	1.1	1.2	1.2	0.9
Native American	8.26	6.3	4.6	5.7
Asian/Pacific Islander	26.4	26.9	17.5	22.7
Hispanic
Marital status
Married/cohabiting	37.2	42.2	48.4	52.0
Widowed/separated/divorced	11.1	13.9	17.7	19.9
Never married	51.7	44.0	33.9	28.2
Education
Less than high school	18.9	15.8	10.0	21.9
High school	35.8	29.8	24.5	31.5
Some college or higher	45.3	54.4	65.6	46.7
Family income
$0–$19,999	31.6	26.7	20.6	30.3
$20,000–$34,999	23.0	22.1	20.7	23.7
$35,000–$69,999	27.1	28.5	29.2	27.6
≥$70,000	18.3	22.7	29.6	18.4
Urbanicity
Urban	86.7	87.3	84.7	83.1
Rural	13.4	12.7	15.3	17.0
Region
Northeast	12.1	13.8	14.3	13.8
Midwest	14.7	19.7	25.1	18.3
South	48.6	39.7	32.7	40.7
West	24.6	26.8	28.0	27.2
Tobacco use status
Current user	12.0	35.7	46.8	28.8
Former user	3.9	8.4	15.2	23.4
Never used	84.1	56.0	38.0	47.8
Lifetime drug use
Any drug use disorders	1.8	9.2	20.6	11.4
Any non-dependent use of illicit drugs	7.1	30.0	38.6	24.7
Never used illicit drugs	91.1	60.9	40.8	63.9

All differences for categorical variables between drinking status groups are significant at p < 0.001.