BMJ  2006;332:667-668 (18 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7542.667-b

Letter

Alcohol use disorders identification test has bias

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In the brave new world of a National Health Service where value for money is tantamount, Coulton et al are to be commended for using several valid clinical outcome measures for alcohol misuse and dependence and comparing them with more traditional biochemical variables commonly used in both primary and secondary care.1 However, some caution is required in interpreting their results in light of the methodology.

Firstly, the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) is made up of questions that assess aspects of alcohol use such as quantity or frequency and dependence. Therefore its internal validity when measured against outcomes such as binge drinking and alcohol dependence is likely to be high in ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analyses. A more clinically meaningful outcome for primary care may be the presence of problems consequent on drinking, which could have been ascertained using a rating scale such as the drinking problems . . . [Full text of this article]

Rahul Rao, consultant

York Clinic, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 3RR tony.rao@kcl.ac.uk


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Relevant Article

Opportunistic screening for alcohol use disorders in primary care: comparative study
Simon Coulton, Colin Drummond, Darren James, Christine Godfrey, J Martin Bland, Steve Parrott, Timothy Peters the Stepwice Research Team
BMJ 2006 332: 511-517. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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