PMID- 15084903
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20040510
LR  - 20190827
IS  - 0145-6008 (Print)
IS  - 0145-6008 (Linking)
VI  - 28
IP  - 3
DP  - 2004 Mar
TI  - Using alcohol screening results and treatment history to assess the severity of 
      at-risk drinking in Veterans Affairs primary care patients.
PG  - 448-55
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary care providers need practical methods for managing patients 
      who screen positive for at-risk drinking. We evaluated whether scores on brief 
      alcohol screening questionnaires and patient reports of prior alcohol treatment 
      reflect the severity of recent problems due to drinking. METHODS: Veterans 
      Affairs general medicine outpatients who screened positive for at-risk drinking 
      were mailed questionnaires that included the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification 
      Test (AUDIT) and a question about prior alcohol treatment or participation in 
      Alcoholics Anonymous ("previously treated"). AUDIT questions 4 through 10 were 
      used to measure past-year problems due to drinking (PYPD). Cross-sectional 
      analyses compared the prevalence of PYPD and mean Past-Year AUDIT Symptom Scores 
      (0-28 points) among at-risk drinkers with varying scores on the CAGE (0-4) and 
      AUDIT-C (0-12) and varying treatment histories. RESULTS: Of 7861 male at-risk 
      drinkers who completed questionnaires, 33.9% reported PYPD. AUDIT-C scores were 
      more strongly associated with Past-Year AUDIT Symptom Scores than the CAGE (p < 
      0.0005). The prevalence of PYPD increased from 33% to 46% over the range of 
      positive CAGE scores but from 29% to 77% over the range of positive AUDIT-C 
      scores. Among subgroups of at-risk drinkers with the same screening scores, 
      patients who reported prior treatment were more likely than never-treated at-risk 
      drinkers to report PYPD and had higher mean Past-Year AUDIT Symptom Scores (p < 
      0.0005). We propose a simple method of risk-stratifying patients using AUDIT-C 
      scores and alcohol treatment histories. CONCLUSIONS: AUDIT-C scores combined with 
      one question about prior alcohol treatment can help estimate the severity of PYPD 
      among male Veterans Affairs outpatients.
FAU - Bradley, Katharine A
AU  - Bradley KA
AD  - Northwest Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, Primary 
      and Specialty Medical Care Service,VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA 
      98108, USA. willi@u.washington.edu
FAU - Kivlahan, Daniel R
AU  - Kivlahan DR
FAU - Zhou, Xiao-Hua
AU  - Zhou XH
FAU - Sporleder, Jennifer L
AU  - Sporleder JL
FAU - Epler, Amee J
AU  - Epler AJ
FAU - McCormick, Kinsey A
AU  - McCormick KA
FAU - Merrill, Joseph O
AU  - Merrill JO
FAU - McDonell, Mary B
AU  - McDonell MB
FAU - Fihn, Stephan D
AU  - Fihn SD
LA  - eng
GR  - K23AA00313/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Comparative Study
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
PL  - England
TA  - Alcohol Clin Exp Res
JT  - Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
JID - 7707242
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology/therapy
MH  - Alcoholism/*diagnosis/epidemiology/*therapy
MH  - *Ambulatory Care/methods/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - *Primary Health Care/methods/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Risk Factors
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
MH  - Treatment Outcome
MH  - Veterans/*statistics & numerical data
EDAT- 2004/04/16 05:00
MHDA- 2004/05/11 05:00
CRDT- 2004/04/16 05:00
PHST- 2004/04/16 05:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2004/05/11 05:00 [medline]
PHST- 2004/04/16 05:00 [entrez]
AID - 00000374-200403000-00012 [pii]
AID - 10.1097/01.alc.0000117836.38108.38 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2004 Mar;28(3):448-55. doi: 
      10.1097/01.alc.0000117836.38108.38.