Stewart, Duncan, Hewitt, Catherine Elizabeth orcid.org/0000-0002-0415-3536 and McCambridge, Jim orcid.org/0000-0002-5461-7001 (2020) Exploratory Validation Study of the Individual AUDIT-C Items among Older People. Alcohol and Alcoholism. ISSN 0735-0414
Abstract
Aims The AUDIT-C is a brief and commonly used alcohol screening tool, with few data available on the relative validity of the three individual items in older adult populations. The aim of this study was to explore the validity of the AUDIT-C items in identifying unhealthy drinking among older people, with a view to developing a single-item screener. Methods A sample of 143 older adults (mean age = 71) were recruited from non-clinical settings in the UK. AUDIT-C scores were compared to an unhealthy drinking reference category of consuming more than the UK recommended weekly units of alcohol. Standard analyses were conducted for men and women, and for those prescribed medications for long term conditions. Results The AUDIT-C items performed well in identifying unhealthy drinking in this sample of older people, with generally high sensitivity, specificity and area under the ROC curve. No significant differences were found in the validity of the three items, though the combined sensitivity and specificity scores and ROC values for item 3 were consistently slightly lower than for items 1 and 2. The findings were similar for men and women, and for participants prescribed medications for long-term conditions. Conclusions AUDIT-C items 1 and 2 performed as well as item 3 in identifying unhealthy drinking among older people in this study. Both are reasonable single-item screener candidates, especially given relative ease of administration, with further validation study needed to examine psychometrics and how alcohol screening for older people can best be implemented in clinical settings. Topic: ethanololder adultalcohol and/or drug screeningarea under the roc curve
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2020. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Health Sciences (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 20 Oct 2020 16:10 |
Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2024 16:59 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agaa080 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/alcalc/agaa080 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:166950 |
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Description: AUDITC Alc & Alc accepted version