Validity of the CAGE questionnaire for men who have sex with men (MSM) in China

Abstract

Background Detection of heavy drinking among men who have sex with men (MSM) is crucial for both intervention and treatment. The CAGE questionnaire is a popular screening instrument for alcohol use problems. However, the validity of CAGE for Chinese MSM is unknown. Method Data were from three waves of cross-sectional assessments among general MSM (n=523) and men who sell sex to other men (“money boys” or MBs, n=486) in Shanghai, China. Specifically, participants were recruited using respondent-driven, community popular opinion leader, and venue-based sampling methods. The validity of the CAGE was examined for different cutoff scores and individual CAGE items using self-reported heavy drinking (≥14 drinks in the past week) as a criterion. Results In the full sample, 75 (7.4%) of participants were classified as heavy drinkers. 32 (6.1%) of general MSM and 43 (8.9%) of MBs were heavy drinkers. The area under curve statistics for overall sample was 0.7 (95% CI: 0.36–0.77). Overall, the sensitivities (ranging from 18.7 to 66.7%), specificities (ranging from 67.5 to 95.8%), and positive predictive values (ranging from 14.1 to 26.4%) for different cutoff scores were inadequate using past week heavy drinking as the criterion. The ability of CAGE to discriminate heavy drinkers from non-heavy drinkers was limited. Conclusions Our findings showed the inadequate validity of CAGE as a screening instrument for current heavy drinking in Chinese MSM. Further research using a combination of validity criteria is needed to determine the applicability of CAGE for this population.

The “Dark Side” Effects of Social Capital on Harmful Drinking among Chinese Community Residents: A Multilevel Study

“…The CAGE (focusing on Cutting down, Annoyance by criticism, Guilty feeling, and Eye-openers) four-item questionnaire was used to measure HD (see Supplementary Materials Table S1 ). The four items were summed using scoring from 0 to 4 [ 25 ]. A higher score indicates an alcohol-related problem and a total of 2 or more is considered to signify the prevalence of HD, which is clinically significant [ 26 ].…”

“…Our previous study found that workplace social capital was a protective factor for HD [ 25 ], but it mainly focused on an occupational population. Considering the previous findings about the mixed effects of the structural and cognitive components of social capital on HD, our study’s aim was to examine the relationship between some indicators of social capital at individual- and district-level, including social cohesion and membership in social organizations with the frequency and prevalence of HD.…”

Sexualized drug use among gay men and other men who have sex with men in Latin America: A description of the phenomenon based on the results of LAMIS-2018

“…Drugs use in any context (recreational use) : alcohol consumption (last 12 months), alcohol abuse (assessed using CAGE4 questionnaire, which is a screening tool widely used to measure alcohol abuse and dependence in a population [ 36 ]), drugs consumed in any context (last 12 months), and injection drug use (sometime in life).…”

Dimensional Structure of one-year Post-COVID-19 Neuropsychiatric and Somatic Sequelae and Association with Role Impairment

“…Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress were screened by Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item scale (PHQ-9) score ≥ 10, [29] Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) ≥ 10, [30] and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) ≥ seven. [31] Substance Use Disorder (SUD) was determined by a CAGE-AID Questionnaire [32] score of ≥ 1.…”