Validation and comparison of alcohol-screening instruments for identifying hazardous drinking in hospitalized patients in Taiwan.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to validate the Mandarin Chinese version of different screening instruments and compare their performances for identifying hazardous drinkers in Taiwan.


METHODS
We compared the performance of the Mandarin Chinese versions of AUDIT, AUDIT-C (AUDIT items 1, 2 and 3), AUDIT-4 (AUDIT items 1, 2, 3 and 10), AUDIT-3 (AUDIT item 3), TWEAK, SMAST and CAGE to detect hazardous drinking in hospitalized patients in Taiwan. The results of the test instruments were blindly compared with the reference standard Schedule for Clinical Assessments in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN).


RESULTS
Of 404 patients evaluated, 100 were identified as having a hazardous drinking pattern. All screening instruments showed acceptable sensitivities (ranging from 85 to 93%) and specificities (ranging from 72 to 92%), but AUDIT and its short forms performed consistently better than the other instruments.


CONCLUSIONS
The Mandarin Chinese versions of AUDIT and its derivatives perform well in screening hospitalized Taiwanese patients for hazardous drinking.
Wu
Shu-I
SI
Department of Psychiatry, Mackay Memorial Hospital, 45 Ming-Sheng Road, Tamshui, Taipei County 251, Taiwan. shui624@yahoo.com.tw
Huang
Hui-Chun
HC
Liu
Shen-Ing
SI
Huang
Chiu-Rong
CR
Sun
Fang-Ju
FJ
Chang
Tse-Yun
TY
Shih
Shou-Chuan
SC
Jeng
Kuo-Shyang
KS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012372:ROC Curve; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology