[Availability of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) for a complete health examination in Japan].
OBJECTIVE
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is an instrument designed to identify hazardous drinkers, harmful drinkers and alchoholics. It was translated into Japanese using the WHOQOL method. The concurrent validity and reliability of the Japanese version of AUDIT were evaluated in a complete health examination. The instrument was also compared with the CAGE questionnaire.


METHODS
The subjects were 93 applicants attending for health checks in a human dry dock. They completed self-report questionnaires containing the Core AUDIT and CAGE. and underwent a semi-structured interview conducted by a professional physician.


RESULTS
From the semi-structured interview, it was determined that 23 of the subjects were problem drinkers and 10 were alcoholics. Analyses indicated that the Core AUDIT was sufficiently sensitive and specific for discriminating problem drinkers and alcoholics. Core AUDIT was also superior to CAGE for discriminating problem drinkers from non-problem drinkers, as well as identifying alcoholics.


CONCLUSIONS
The data suggest that the Japanese version of AUDIT is useful for early detection of hazardous or harmful drinkers.
Hiro
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Tsurumi Health Service Center, Nippon Kokan Hospital, Yokohama, Japan.
Shima
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D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010808:Physical Examination; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires