A Critical Evaluation of Several Alcohol Screening Instruments Using the CIDI-SAM as a Criterion Measure |
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Authors: | Richard Clements |
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Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, Indiana University Northwest, Gary, Indiana. |
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Abstract: | Four alcohol screening instruments (the AUDIT, CAGE, MAST, and Svanum's scale) were administered to a sample of 306 undergraduate students at a Midwestern university and were compared with regard to several test characteristics, using the alcohol section of the CIDI-SAM (DSM-IV version) as the criterion measure. The performance of these instruments was evaluated using two subsets of subjects: (1) students who currently met diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence ( n = 35); and (2) students who met diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence in the past and/or at present (i.e., lifetime diagnosis; n = 50). The AUDIT performed significantly better than the other three instruments in identifying students who were currently alcohol dependent, providing a moderate degree of clinical utility with this group. The four instruments did not differ significantly in their ability to identify students with a lifetime diagnosis; each measure provided only a modest degree of clinical utility with this group. |
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Keywords: | Alcohol Screening College Students CIDI-SAM |
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