The use of audit to assess level of alcohol problems in rural Vietnam.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the accuracy and performance of AUDIT in detecting alcohol problems, as defined by ICD-10 and DSM-IV, in a rural district in Vietnam.


METHODS
The study was conducted in a rural district of Vietnam. Five hundred men and women aged 18-60 were randomly selected for interview with AUDIT and CIDI 2.1. The ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria for harmful use/alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence were used to evaluate AUDIT.


RESULTS
Due to few cases of alcohol problems observed among women (1/282), we could only evaluate the validity of AUDIT in men. At cut-off point 7/8, AUDIT had a sensitivity of 81.8% and a specificity of 76.1% for detecting at-risk drinking. At this cut-off point, using ICD-10 criteria, the sensitivity was 100% for harmful use and 93.8% for alcohol dependence; the specificity was 69.9% for harmful use and 87.4% for alcohol dependence. The area under the ROC curve was 0.91 (0.84-0.98) for harmful use and 0.84 (0.74-0.94) for alcohol dependence (ICD-10). The agreement between ICD-10 and DSM-IV was higher for diagnosing alcohol dependence than alcohol abuse (Kappa coefficient: 0.98 vs 0.68).


CONCLUSIONS
We confirmed that AUDIT is feasible to use in a rural community in a developing country. Different cut-off points are appropriate for different purposes, but for general population screening of at-risk drinking we found a cut-off point 7/8 to be optimal.
Giang
Kim Bao
KB
Department of Public Health Sciences, Norrbacka, Karolinska Instituet, SE-17176 Stockholm, Sweden.
Spak
Fredik
F
Dzung
Truong Viet
TV
Allebeck
Peter
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014744:Vietnam