[Test for assessing levels of alcohol consumption in Bucaramanga, Colombia: design and validation].
BACKGROUND
Excessive alcohol intake can pose a serious problem in public health. The development of instruments to classify the consumers correctly is the first stage in the epidemiologic investigation.


OBJECTIVE
The internal validity and the reliability was evaluated for a test of problematic alcohol consumption (CP-alcohol) in Bucaramanga, Colombia. 2005--2006. This work provides a measure that is internally consistent and improved reliability of diagnostic technology.


METHODS
Six hundred one subjects between 18 and 60 years participated in the test for CP-alcohol on two occasions. At the same time, a survey on biological variables (VB), socioeconomic (VSE) and dietary (D) was administered. The internal consistency of CP-alcohol was evaluated by calculating the coefficient alpha of Cronbach, and the reliability with coefficients of Spearman and Cohens Kappa. To evaluate the associations among problematic consumption, VB, VSE, D and the risk of alcoholism, the prevalence ratios were calculated using binomial regression.


RESULTS
The frequency of problematic alcohol consumption was of 46.9 (CI 42.9-50.9). Men presented an increased frequency of problematic alcohol use 1.6 times that of women (p<0.001). The coefficient alpha of Cronbach was moderate for all the questions of the test (minimum 0.41, maximum 0.61). In the first application of CP-alcohol, Cronbachs alpha was 0.63, and, in the second, 0.49. Spearmans correlation coefficient was of 0.87 (CI 0.84-0.90) for the population-for men 0.86 (CI 0.82-0.90) and for women 0.86 (CI 0.82-0.90). The Kappas obtained were very good, 0.70 to 0.89. Sex, pleasure provided by alcoholic drinks , risk of alcoholism according to Cut Down on Drinking, Annoyed by Criticism, Guilty Feeling, and Eye Opener (CAGE) and the quantity of consumed alcohol were all correlated with problematic consumption.


CONCLUSIONS
CP-alcohol is a useful test for investigating the epidemiology of health problems associated with alcohol use.
Herrán
Oscar F
OF
Escuela de Nutrición y Dietética, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia. herran@uis.edu.co
Ardila
María F
MF
Barba
Diana M
DM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011634:Public Health; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires