@article{ref1,
title="Primary care validation of a single screening question for drinkers",
journal="Journal of studies on alcohol",
year="2006",
author="Seale, J. Paul and Boltri, John M. and Shellenberger, Sylvia and Velasquez, Mary M. and Cornelius, Monica E. and Guyinn, Monique and Okosun, Ike and Sumner, Heather",
volume="67",
number="5",
pages="778-784",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to conduct a primary care validation study of a single screening question for alcohol misuse (&quot;When was the last time you had more than X drinks in 1 day?,&quot; where X was four for women and X was five for men), which was previously validated in a study conducted in emergency departments. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was accomplished by interviewing 625 male and female adult drinkers who presented to five southeastern primary care practices. Patients answered the single question (coded as within 3 months, within 12 months, ever, or never), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and AUDIT consumption questions (AUDIT-C). Alcohol misuse was defined as either at-risk drinking, identified by a 29-day Timeline Followback interview or a current (past-year) alcohol-use disorder by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria, or both. RESULTS: Among 625 drinkers interviewed, 25.6% were at-risk drinkers, 21.7% had a current alcohol- use disorder, and 35.2% had either or both conditions. Considering &quot;within the last 3 months&quot; as positive, the sensitivity of the single question was 80% and the specificity was 74%. Chi-square analyses revealed similar sensitivity across ethnic and gender groups; however, specificity was higher in women and whites (p = .0187 and .0421, respectively). Considering &quot;within the last 12 months&quot; as positive increased the question's sensitivity, especially for those with alcohol-use disorders. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the single alcohol screening question (0.79) was slightly lower than for the AUDIT and AUDIT-C, but sensitivity and specificity were similar. CONCLUSIONS: A single question about the last episode of heavy drinking is a sensitive, time-efficient screening instrument that shows promise for increasing alcohol screening in primary care practices.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0096-882X",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}