Screening Questionnaires for Problem Drinking in Adolescents: Performance of AUDIT, AUDIT-C, CRAFFT and POSIT

Abstract

Background/Aims: Only rather few data on the validity of screening questionnaires to detect problem drinking in adolescents exist. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), its short form AUDIT-C, the Substance Module of the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT), and CRAFFT (acronym for car, relax, alone, forget, family, and friends). Methods: The questionnaires were filled in by 9th and 10th graders from two comprehensive schools. All students received an interview using the alcohol section of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence according to DSM-IV as well as episodic heavy drinking served as criteria to validate the screening instruments. Results: All 9th and 10th graders (n = 225) of both schools participated. No significant differences were found for areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves ranging from 0.810 to 0.872. Cronbach’s alpha was satisfactory (0.77–0.80) but poor for CRAFFT (0.64). Different cut-offs are discussed. Conclusions: Considering validity as well as reliability, AUDIT, AUDIT-C and POSIT performed well; however, the POSIT is quite lengthy. AUDIT-C showed good psychometric properties and has clear advantages because of its brevity.

Alcohol Drinking Among Students of the University of Ljubljana

“…To spremeni tudi mejne vrednosti za pozitiven test; pri slovenskem vprašalniku je test pozitiven za moške pri 6 in več točkah ter za ženske pri 5 in več točkah (pri izvirnem je test pozitiven za moške pri 5 in več točkah ter za ženske pri 4 in več točkah) (17,18). AUDIT-C se je izkazal za učinkovito presejalno orodje z visoko zanesljivostjo in občutljivostjo tudi med mladostniki (19,20 med tveganim in škodljivim pitjem ter izkušnjami z drogo pa na vzorcu 7.197 študentov. Študentje, ki so odgovorili na obe vprašanji (N = 7.169), sestavljajo vzorec, ki smo ga analizirali z večnivojskimi in multivariatnimi metodami.…”

Validación psicométrica del POSIT para el cribado del consumo de riesgo de alcohol y otras drogas entre adolescentes

“…Respecto a la dimensionalidad de la subescala, a pesar de ser una cuestión poco abordada en la literatura, la realización de un AFC ha permitido constatar que posee una estructura unifactorial, lo cual constituye un nuevo aval para trabajos como el de Knight et al (2001), Latimer et al (1997), Mariño et al (1998) y Rumpf et al (2013) en los que se asume de manera implícita dicha unidimensionalidad.…”

“…Actualmente existen diversos estudios sobre la validación y la utilidad del POSIT, tanto de la escala completa (Dembo et al, 1996;Knight, Goodman, Pulerwitz y DuRant, 2001;McLaney, Del Boca y Babor, 1994) como de algunas de sus subescalas (Knight, Sherritt, Harris, Gates y Chang, 2003;Latimer et al, 2004;Latimer, Winters y Stinchfield, 1997;Rumpf, Wohlert, Freyer-Adam, Grothues y Bischof, 2013). La utilidad del POSIT como herramienta de screening en adolescentes ha sido recalcada por diferentes autores e instituciones, tanto en revistas científicas como en guías y manuales, destacando la fiabilidad y validez del instrumento (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2012;Fuller y Cavanaugh, 1995;McPherson y Hersch, 2000;Organización Mundial de la Salud, 1997;Timken, 2007).…”

Adolescents Admitted to In-Patient Treatment with Alcohol Intoxication: Risk and Resilience Factors Associated with Problematic Alcohol Use

“…We employed a cut-off score of 7 or more to define problematic alcohol use since this was found to be more appropriate for adolescent populations [27,28] than the cut-off of 8 that is usually applied in adults. Alcohol consumption was assessed using the three AUDIT items measuring consumption frequency, consumption quantity, and frequency of binge drinking, respectively (AUDIT-C) [29].…”