Psychometric properties of a single-item assessing drunkenness to identify hazardous drinking: a replication study |
| |
Authors: | Beth H Chaney Adam E Barry Jennifer Cremeens-Matthews Ryan J Martin Michael L Stellefson Karen Vail-Smith |
| |
Institution: | 1. Department of Health Education &2. Promotion, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA, chaneye@ecu.edu;4. Department of Health &5. Kinesiology, Texas A&6. M University, College Station, TX, USA, and;7. Promotion, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA,;8. Behavior, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA |
| |
Abstract: | Background: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) is a commonly used scale to screen for hazardous alcohol use in various settings, including primary and emergency care settings. In such settings, brevity of effective screening tools is needed; therefore, single items have been developed and tested for detecting at-risk alcohol use behaviors.Purpose: This study replicates previous work validating the ability of a non-quantity-based single item assessing drunkenness to effectively identify signs of hazardous alcohol use.Methods: During fall 2013, alcohol use data were collected from 781 self-reported current drinkers. Concurrent validity of a drunkenness item to detect hazardous drinking behaviors was assessed against gender-based AUDIT-C thresholds. Convergent validity of the drunkenness item was assessed against biologic BrAC samples.Results: The single drunkenness item accounted for 0.856 of the area-under-the-received operating characteristics (ROC) curve for hazardous alcohol use (p?<?0.001). Using a specific cut-off of 1, the drunkenness item was 99.8% sensitive in detecting hazardous drinking behavior and was 93.5% specific in identifying non-hazardous drinking behaviors.Conclusion: In a new sample, initial psychometric findings of the single drunkenness item to accurately detect hazardous alcohol use were replicated, providing additional support for the utility of this item. |
| |
Keywords: | Alcohol screening instrument AUDIT-C replication study |
|
|