Brief alcoholism screening questionnaire: establishment and validity in Taiwanese.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There has been a marked increase in the prevalence of alcoholism in the Taiwanese population over the past 6 decades. This study was designed to establish a Taiwanese Brief Alcoholism Screening Questionnaire (BASQ) for use in early detection in medical and public health settings. METHODS: Interview data were collected from the database of the Taiwan Psychiatric Epidemiological Project (TPEP). The TPEP interviews had been conducted using the Chinese-modified version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS-CM) that included a section on alcoholism diagnosis. Data collected from a community sample of 13,373 subjects was used in this study. Twenty nine DIS-CM items for alcoholism diagnosis were entered into an analytic model with 7 statistical filters to identify cross-cultural items. A brief alcoholism screening questionnaire was constructed using these selected items. The validity of the questionnaire was tested in subjects (n = 457) recruited from a local medical center, a hospital clinic, and an alcoholism clinic of a psychiatric center. RESULTS: Four cross-cultural items were identified and the BASQ was constructed. This BASQ had a best cut-off point of 3 with adequate sensitivity (0.86 to 0.88), specificity (0.88 to 0.89), and positive prediction rate (0.90 to 0.91). It detected a varying prevalence of alcoholism (10.1 to 90.3%) in diverse clinical settings. CONCLUSIONS: A 4-item BASQ was established with adequate validity for clinical and public health application in the early detection of alcoholism in Taiwanese subjects.

Validation of the Cross-Cultural alcoholism screening test (CCAST)

Background. When screening instruments that are used in the assessment and diagnosis of alcoholism of individuals from different ethnicities, some cultural variables based on norms and societal acceptance of drinking behavior can play an important role in determining the outcome. The accepted diagnostic criteria of current market testing are based on Western standards. Methods. In this study, the Munich Alcoholism Test (31 items) was the base instrument applied to subjects from several Hispanic-American countries (Bolivia, Chile Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru). After the sample was submitted to several statistical procedures, these 31 items were reduced to a culture-Free, 31-item test named the Cross-Cultural Alcohol Screening Test (CCAST). Results. The results of this Hispanic-American sample (n= 2,107) empirically demonstrated that CCAST measures alcoholism with an adecuate degreen of accuracy when compared to other available cross-cultural test. Conclusions. CCAST is useful in the diagnosis of alcoholism in Spanish-speaking immigrants living in countries where English is spoken. CCAST cas be used in general hospitals, psychiatric wards, emergency services and police stations. The test can be useful for other professionals, such as psychological consultants, researchers, and those conductin expertise appraisal

Measurement errors of a short self-assessed test on alcoholism

The Munich Alcoholism Test (MALT) was applied in several European (Germany and Spain) and Hispano-american (Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chile) countries, using an items-reduced-desing. Four culture-free items were detected, which yielded a short and self-assessed Cross-Cultural Index of Alcoholism. The Hispano-american samples used in a simulacrum, have empirically demonstrated that this instrument measures alcoholism and has an adequate degree of accuracy in the measurement