Scientific background: Alcohol Use

About this test

The AUDIT was developed by the World Health Organization as part of an international multi-center study (Saunders et al., 1993) and is today the most widely used screening instrument for hazardous drinking in primary care worldwide. It covers three areas: consumption (questions 1-3), dependence symptoms (questions 4-6), and alcohol-related problems (questions 7-10). Numerous international validation studies confirm good sensitivity and specificity for detecting hazardous use.

The development sample included 1,888 primary care patients (36% non-drinkers, 48% drinking patients, 16% with alcohol dependence). A review across six AUDIT studies reports, at the cutoff of 8, a sensitivity of 97% and specificity of 78% for detecting hazardous drinking, and a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 85% for detecting harmful drinking -- the test correctly flags the great majority of true cases while producing relatively few false alarms.

Dimensions

Sources & license

• Babor, T. F., Higgins-Biddle, J. C., Saunders, J. B., & Monteiro, M. G. (2001). AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test – Guidelines for Use in Primary Care (2nd ed.). World Health Organization.

  "This document may be freely reviewed, abstracted, reproduced, and translated, in part or in whole but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes" (WHO/MSD/MSB/01.6a, copyright page) -- free for non-commercial screening use. Item wording, response-scale anchors, and the official 0-7/8-15/16-19/20-40 scoring bands were verified verbatim against this WHO manual.

  https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-MSD-MSB-01.6a