title: Automated telephone screening for problem drinking.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study assessed test-retest reliability and criterion validity for an automated version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a screening tool for alcohol-related problems. Participants' willingness to use such a system to learn about and change their drinking behavior was also assessed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 202 callers recruited through newspaper ads and flyers asking for volunteers concerned about their drinking and willing to help test a new method of screening and referral for alcohol problems. Participants were divided into two groups. The first group of subjects recruited received the Telephone-Linked Communications (TLC)-AUDIT twice, administered a week apart. The second group received the TLC-AUDIT once and a human-administered AUDIT once, also a week apart.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Test-retest reliability was assessed in 102 participants; the intraclass correlation of AUDIT scores between both administrations was .87; kappa for nonproblem versus problem drinking (AUDIT score of 8 or above) was .89. The validity study compared the TLC-AUDIT scores of the next 100 participants to AUDIT questions administered by a human interviewer. The intraclass correlation was .94; kappa was .75. Seventy-five percent of all participants who screened positive for problem drinking agreed they would "talk to a computer again to learn more about your drinking pattern and how to deal with it".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Automated telephone technology can be used to administer the AUDIT instrument with high levels of reliability and validity. This technology could be used to deliver behavioral change interventions.
authors.affiliation: Addiction Services WEH 101, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 16 Blossom Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. arubin1@partners.org
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: Jeffrey P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Migneault
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ludena
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003142:Communication; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone