title: Validation of the "CAGE" alcoholism screening test in a Brazilian psychiatric inpatient hospital setting.
abstract: A Portuguese version of the CAGE alcoholism screening test was administered to 68 alcoholic and 46 non-alcoholic male inpatients in a Psychiatric Hospital in São Paulo. The Portuguese text of the 14 questions, 4 of which were CAGE questions, is provided. When a score of two positive responses to any of the 4 CAGE questions was taken as a positive test result, the sensitivity of the test was 88% and the specificity was 83%. Increasing the cut-off point to 3 positive responses decreased the sensitivity to 81% and increased the specificity to 94%. The importance of cut-off points is discussed. The similarity between our data and results obtained with the English language CAGE test in other countries suggests that the CAGE questionnaire could be a useful tool for screening alcoholics in Brazil. The need for further validation studies in non-hospital populations is discussed.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001938:Brazil; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires