The Alcohol, Health and Behavior Project  (AHB) is a high-risk, prospective study of the development and persistence of alcohol use disorders and other problems in adulthood that began in 1987.  Its major goals include the identification of variables that mediate and moderate risk for alcohol use disorders in adulthood, the testing of different models of comorbidity between alcohol use disorders and other psychological disorders, and the identification of possible long-term consequences of earlier substance involvement on later development and role functioning.

    AHB is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a component of the National Institutes on Health (NIH). Funding for the first 14 years of the project was provided by grants number R01 AA07231 and R37 AA07231 and has recently been continued for another 4 years under grant number 1R01-AA013987.  The funding for the project was first awarded in June 1987 when participants were first-time freshmen at the University of Missouri. The next follow-up assessment is scheduled to begin in May 2003 and be complete by January 2005. In contrast to previous assessments that focused solely on the participants themselves, this next stage of our project will also assess participants' spouses and intimate partners and their children.

    The AHB is closely affiliated with the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center (MARC), a collaboration of alcohol researchers at Washington University, St. Louis University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Medical Center, and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. The MARC is one of 15 National Research Centers funded by NIAAA.    

Click here to email the Alcohol, Health, and Behavior Project

You can call the Project at:573-884-9843 or (toll free) 1-877-610-7204.

Principal Investigator Kenneth J. Sher