Content of the questionnaire
| Target audience | Adults |
|---|---|
| Application | The AUDIT has been developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is primarily used to screen for alcohol-related disorders. The aim is to identify people with a problematic level of alcohol consumption. Additional to the full version, there is also the AUDIT-C, which consists of only the consumption items and is an even shorter and less intrusive measure which is usually accepted very well by clients. |
| Composition | The AUDIT consists of 10 Items of which three are related to alcohol consumption (all AUDIT-C questions), three related to alcohol dependency and four to alcohol abuse. |
Psychometric properties
| Reliability & Validity | The psychometric properties of the AUDIT have been researched in multiple studies. The results were very good. The test-retest reliability for example was › .85. The questionnaire further showed good correlations with comparable measures as the MAST and CAGE. |
|---|---|
| Cut-offs | A cut-off value of 8 (for men) was chosen, because at this value, a sensitivity above .9 and a specificity above .8 has been demonstrated. The cut-off for women was chosen to be a bit lower. These cut-off values inform about problematic drinking. For the identification of an alcohol abuse disorder, the cut-off value is around 15-20. For older recipients, above the age of 65, the cut-off value can be chosen a bit lower. |
Literature and copyright
Bush, K., Kivlahan, D. R., McDonell, M. B., Fihn, S. D., & Bradley, K. A. (1998). The AUDIT alcohol consumption questions (AUDIT-C): an effective brief screening test for problem drinking. Archives of internal medicine, 158(16), 1789-1795.
World Health Organization (2001). The alcohol Use disorders identification test. Guidelines for use in primary care. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Dybek, I., Bischof, G., Grothues, J., Reinhardt, S., Meyer, C., Hapke, U., John, U., Broocks, A., Hohagen, F., & Rumpf, H. J. (2006). The reliability and validity of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in a German general practice population sample. Journal of studies on alcohol, 67(3), 473-481.
© WHO
