North Bethesda Marriot Hotel
Bethesda, MD
March 5-6, 2008

NIDA Chair:
Marsha F. Lopez, Ph.D., M.H.S.

Meeting Purpose and Intent:

The first annual NESARC* Users Meeting was convened to bring together researchers who conduct secondary analyses using the National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY) dataset. The goals were to share research findings, to promote discussion and collaboration, and to provide technical assistance.  The meeting stems from an RFA encouraging secondary data analysis of the NESARC data, therefore the agenda consisted of short presentations from the RFA awardees, as well as somewhat more involved presentations from other NIDA investigators who are using or have used the NESARC data.

Participants shared strategies for analyzing and interpreting the data and other useful information. As a result of the meeting, many participants made plans to continue discussion with each other and identified opportunities for collaboration.

Brief Discussion of Meeting Outcome:

Meeting participants indicated their desire for continued access to these data, identifying this dataset as a rich and unique resource. Users indicated their hope that NIDA would assist in provide the infrastructure necessary to make these data available.  As a result of this meeting, NIDA is setting up a “discussion board” to facilitate communication, sharing, and collaboration among users of the NESARC data.

*National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) - The NESARC was conducted and sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and is a primary source for information and data on the U.S. population for alcohol and drug use, substance use disorders, and associated psychiatric and medical comorbidities.  NESARC was designed to be a longitudinal survey with its first Wave of interviews fielded in 2001-2002. The second Wave of interviews was conducted in 2004-2005. The NESARC is a representative sample of the United States population.  43,093 Americans participated in the first Wave of the survey, 34,653 of whom were reinterviewed in Wave 2. The target population of the NESARC is the non-institutionalized household population, 18 years and older, residing in the United States including the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii. Additionally the following non-institutional group quarters housing units were included as part of the NESARC sample: boarding houses, rooming houses, non-transient hotels and motels, shelters, facilities for housing workers, college quarters, and group homes. Additional information about the methods and data sets can be found at http://www.nesarc.niaaa.nih.gov/.

Participant list, Objectives & Agenda (PDF Format, 236kb)