Diagnostic usefulness of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire for the detection of hazardous drinking and dependence on alcohol among Spanish patients

Objective: To check the validity of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) among Spanish adult citizens. Methods: This is a descriptive observational study. The surveyed group comprised patients aged 18-80 years who went to their doctors' surgeries at two primary care centres located in Cordoba (Spain). We examined the psychometric properties of AUDIT and its capacity to correctly diagnose alcohol abuse or dependence, as defined by DSM-IV, ICD-10, and hazardous drinking. Results: Six hundred and fourteen patients were studied (mean age 43 +/- 1.43 years). At a cut-off value of 7 points, the sensitivity of AUDIT in detecting hazardous drinking was 91.7%, and its specificity 91.9%; the area below the curve was 0.95 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.937-0.975). To detect possible dependence, the optimum cut-off value was 6 points. According to ICD-10, sensitivity was 81.6%, specificity 82.3%, and the area under the curve 0.885 (95% CI 0.848-0.923; p<0.001), whereas according to DSM-IV criteria, sensitivity was 88.3%, specificity 83.1%, and the area under the curve 0.918 (95% CI 0.885-0.951). Conclusion: The high criterion-related validity of AUDIT was proven, regardless of the gold standard used.