The NAS is conducted by the National Alcohol Research Center and surveys adults aged 18 and older throughout the US. Every five years since the 1960s, the NAS has asked US adults how much they’re drinking, what they’re drinking, their reason for drinking (and not drinking!).
While we’ve added new questions, there are questions we’ve been asking the American public for over forty years—that has generated a lot of data! Having these data, we’re able to look at how the US population is changing its relationship and behavior with alcohol and other substances, like cannabis, over time.
To give you a sense of how the survey has changed, we put together a timeline:
The goals of every National Alcohol Survey are to:
1) Get accurate estimates of alcohol use:
The primary goal of a representative national survey on alcohol use like the NAS is to provide accurate estimates of the prevalence of alcohol use, alcohol problems, and alcohol use disorder in the general population.
2) Monitor trends and disparities:
The long series of the NAS and consistent measures over time allows for trends to be monitored and evaluated, and, importantly, for disparities in the prevalence of alcohol use and alcohol problems to be examined over time.
3) Examine risk relationships:
The NAS also wants to understand the relationships and mechanisms underlying alcohol use and problems and changes over time, how different factors may be related to different outcomes among different groups, and how alcohol use increases risk of negative health outcomes.
The current 2023-2024 study will also collect dried blood spot samples (link to inner page) to test for immune proteins as a measure of inflammation. This is a new addition to the NAS, and from these samples, we hope to better understand the relationship between how our immune systems work and what role that might play in how using alcohol can affect our mental health.
