Interpretation of items in the AUDIT questionnaire.

AIMS To test for the possibility that tertiary students misinterpret certain items on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). METHODS Responses to alternative question wordings were compared with responses to standard items. RESULTS Alterations to items 5 and 9, so that consequences of drinking epitomized in these items were more specifically defined, resulted in markedly different response distributions to the item, but the total AUDIT score was not changed. CONCLUSIONS Caution is necessary before using individual AUDIT items as measures of consequences in population surveys, and the possibility of false positives in total scores should be borne in mind.

[1]  Kypros Kypri,et al.  High prevalence, persistent hazardous drinking among New Zealand tertiary students. , 2002, Alcohol and alcoholism.

[2]  J. Rehm,et al.  Incorporating the AUDIT into a general population telephone survey: a methodological experiment. , 2000, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[3]  B. Claussen.  Alcohol disorders and re-employment in a 5-year follow-up of long-term unemployed. , 1999, Addiction.

[4]  P. Beumont,et al.  Is there a relationship between bulimia nervosa and hazardous alcohol use? , 1998, The International journal of eating disorders.

[5]  T. Babor,et al.  A review of research on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). , 1997, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[6]  Jerald G. Bachman,et al.  Smoking, Drinking, and Drug Use in Young Adulthood: The Impacts of New Freedoms and New Responsibilities , 1997 .

[7]  J. Fleming.  The epidemiology of alcohol use in Australian women: findings from a national survey of women's drinking. , 1996, Addiction.

[8]  J. Saunders,et al.  Predictive capacity of the AUDIT questionnaire for alcohol-related harm. , 1995, Addiction.

[9]  O. Aasland,et al.  Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO Collaborative Project on Early Detection of Persons with Harmful Alcohol Consumption--II. , 1993, Addiction.

[10]  K. Barry,et al.  The alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) in a college sample. , 1991, The International journal of the addictions.