Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): establishment of cut-off scores in a hospitalized Chinese population

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use has become a problem for Taiwanese society. Developing a brief, rapid, and flexible tool to screen an individual's alcohol consumption is important. Many countries use the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to screen for harmful and dangerous alcohol consumption. The psychometric characteristics of the AUDIT have not been examined in a Chinese population. METHODS: Determination of the cutoff points for the AUDIT Chinese version included three stages: translating the questionnaire, expert review and formal testing on subjects. Participants (N = 112) were recruited from a medical research center of four gastroenterology wards in northern Taiwan. RESULTS: The cutoff point for participants diagnosed as "harmful users" was an AUDIT score of 8. The sensitivity was 0.96, specificity was 0.85, positive predictive value (PPV) was 0.85, negative predictive value (NPV) was 0.96, and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.93. The cutoff point for participants diagnosed as "alcohol dependent" was an AUDIT score of 11. The sensitivity was 0.94, specificity was 0.63, PPV was 0.31, NPV was 0.98, and AUROC was 0.84. Furthermore, males had significantly higher AUDIT and AUDIT-C scores. Males were also significantly more likely than females to be diagnosed as harmful users or alcohol dependents. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the AUDIT gave the same cutoff point for harmful alcohol use by Taiwanese individuals as that set by the World Health Organization. This finding shows that this cutoff point is generally appropriate in screening for problem alcohol consumption. Moreover, the cutoff AUDIT score of 11 for alcohol dependence provides a reference for screening in Taiwanese clinics.