1. The AUDIT questionnaire: choosing a cut-off score. Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test.
- Author
-
Conigrave KM, Hall WD, and Saunders JB
- Subjects
- Adult, Alcohol Drinking adverse effects, Alcohol Drinking epidemiology, Alcoholic Intoxication complications, Alcoholic Intoxication epidemiology, Alcoholic Intoxication prevention & control, Alcoholism diagnosis, Alcoholism prevention & control, Cohort Studies, Emergency Service, Hospital statistics & numerical data, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, New South Wales epidemiology, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, World Health Organization, Alcoholism epidemiology, Mass Screening, Personality Inventory statistics & numerical data
- Abstract
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is a 10-item questionnaire designed by the World Health Organization to screen for hazardous alcohol intake in primary health care settings. In this longitudinal study we examined its performance in predicting alcohol-related harm over the full range of its scores using receiver operating characteristic analyses. Three hundred and thirty ambulatory care patients were interviewed using a detailed assessment schedule which included the AUDIT questions. After 2-3 years, subjects were reviewed and their experience of alcohol-related medical and social harm assessed by interview and perusal of medical records. AUDIT was a good predictor of both alcohol-related social and medical problems. Cut-off points of 7-8 maximized discrimination in the prediction of trauma and hypertension. Higher cut-offs (12 and 22) provided better discrimination in the prediction of alcohol-related social problems and of liver disease or gastrointestinal bleeding, but high specificity was offset by reduced sensitivity. We conclude that the recommended cut-off score of eight is a reasonable approximation to the optimal for a variety of endpoints.
- Published
- 1995
- Full Text
- View/download PDF